Superwomen of Eva 2: Soaring High
by Rassilon001
Summary: [On Hiatus] Chiyo Suzuhara, little sister of Toji, suffered a horrible accident the day of the Angel's attack, and thought her life changed forever. Until she found a lost legacy her mother left behind...
1. First Flight

**Disclaimer:  
><strong>I do not own Evangelion or DC Comics. Please don't sue me, I'm poor.

**Summary:  
><strong>The loss of her ability to walk devastated Chiyo Suzuhara, the younger sister of Toji. That is, until she came across a discovery of her mother's. One that lifted her up into the clouds.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter One: First Flight<strong>

Chiyo Suzuhara loved to draw.

It'd been a passion of hers ever since she'd been little, pencil flying across paper in simple, yet elegant designs. In her first year of Middle School she'd entered an art contest that had won second place in a Tokyo-3 wide talent competition, losing only to a specialized Academy on the outskirts of town. But she didn't really draw for fame, she just enjoyed it.

So it came as no surprise to her she was sketching now, since no one was going anywhere anytime soon.

"Whatcha drawin'?"

Chiyo glanced up, it was Nozomi Horaki, who sat behind her in home room, fellow classmate from class 2-C at Tokyo-3 Middle School. She'd recognize the distinctive freckled face just about anywhere.

She tilted the sketchpad in her hands, showing off her latest work.

"A bird?"

"Mhmm," replied Chiyo, going back to her doodling. "Not sure yet if I want to draw this one alone or in a flock though."

The lights overhead flickered, and both girls glanced up. They weren't currently sitting in the middle of class, but instead in the middle of an emergency shelter. Chiyo hadn't received the whole story from the teachers, and it seemed unlikely they had either. All they knew was that some very massive and very dangerous creature called an Angel was coming to Tokyo-3. And that they'd been evacuated to keep out of the way of the fighting. She wished she'd been in the same shelter as her big brother Toji, but alas, his school was on the other side of the city, they'd been forced apart. The same with their father and grandfather, they were likely on the outskirts by now, if they hadn't already made it safely home.

They'd been here for a long time now, since just before school had been about to let out. It would've been dark out by now, and Chiyo wasn't anxious to walk home at night all by herself.

"Hey Nozomi, do you think it would be okay if I stayed over tonight? Your place is closer than mine is."

"I dunno I'd have to ask big sis first. Assuming we ever get out of here," she muttered. "How long have we been here?"

Chiyo checked her watch. "Just under three hours."

"Still? Jeez. Maybe they just forgot about us," said Nozomi.

"Nah, no way," said Chiyo, returning to her sketching. Though she had a sneaking suspicion Nozomi might be right. They hadn't heard anything in a long while, after all.

"Mayb-"

Then suddenly a massive shudder shook the room, causing dust to trickle down from the ceiling. Nozomi sneezed, even as some of the other students began to fidget and ask meaningless questions, and then start demanding answers. The lights flickered again, and Chiyo felt a sliver of fear wash over her like a tangible wave.

"We're going to be alright, aren't we?" asked Nozomi.

Chiyo put down her sketching pad and wrapped a comforting arm around the other girl. Though if she admitted privately to herself, the comfort of closeness was as much for her benefit as Nozomi's. She couldn't shake this feeling of dread...

There was a massive crash overhead, and someone screamed.

The ceiling and far wall didn't so much break as crumble, the way stale bread did. Concrete gave way easily as a massive purple arm came smashing down, seconds after several students and other evacuees had moved out of the way. Chiyo watch in horror as chunks of wall the size of beach balls came tumbling down towards her. She had only enough presence of mind to shove Nozomi out of the way as the wall came crashing down atop of her. She heard a high-pitched scream.

It may have been her own.

* * *

><p>Darkness.<p>

_Beep. Beep. Beep_.

The steady hum of machines, the beep of a monitor, the whoosh of a respirator. Medical sounds. And there, in the background, something else. Heated voices, arguing. They sound like they're a million miles away, past the vast expanse of darkness. But they're gradually coming closer, and she can almost make them out.

"-my fault!"

She stirred a little, consciousness slowly returning as Chiyo tried to open her eyes. They felt like they weighed a dozen tons, each. But slowly, she peeked them open and adjusted to the ambient light, the fuzzy shapes coming into focus after a moment.

"She's awake."

The face of her father was still fuzzy, but Toji's became much clearer as he leaned over to check her, displaying the most terribly worried expression she'd ever seen him use. She used to believe nothing could faze him, that he was impossibly brave. But now he looked horrified.

Mostly because of how Chiyo looked, lying on that hospital bed. She'd always been on the shortish side, small limbed and delicate featured, taking more after their mom in that regard. But lying on the big bed, swathed in the white blankets, she looked positively tiny. Her dark hair was a sharp contrast to her paler-than-usual skin, and her normally bright blue eyes looked clouded and gray.

"Chiyo... I'm so sorry. I should have been there."

"What happened?" she croaked. Her throat felt dry.

Toji turned away, ashamed.

Hesitantly, a dark-haired nurse stepped forward, clutching a clipboard to her chest. "The shelter took a hit during the battle. During the fight the Eva unit accidently crashed into the refugee bunker where you were. You're lucky to be alive, really."

She tried to lift her head, but it felt like it weighed a hundred pounds. "Nozomi...?"

A hand was placed on her shoulder, gently pushing her back down. "She's fine. Preliminary reports suggest nobody was killed. You were the only one seriously injured. But... I'm so sorry..." said the nurse. "We... we did all we could really."

"Why, what's wrong?" asked Chiyo, feeling slightly more awake than she had before. Adrenaline fed strength to sluggish limbs. She felt all out of sorts, like her body didn't fit right, but nothing hurt really. Pain being the universal message for something wrong, she couldn't feel anything that hurt. She lifted up her arms, they worked, and pushed herself up into a sitting position slowly. Then her eyes widened as she realized what was wrong. What she could finally feel.

Or rather, didn't feel.

The nurse looked more panicked than Chiyo did, about ready to bolt out of the room or scream for a doctor or hit the emergency button or anything if Chiyo so much as twitched. But all the little girl did was slump wearily against her pillow, staring at the end of her bed.

Where her legs lay, unmoving.

Completely unresponsive.

* * *

><p>She later found out she'd been unconscious for nearly three whole days, during which she'd been in intensive care. Overall, she'd escaped with mostly just bruises and cuts that had healed up during her time under, but her spinal injury was irrepairable. A few medical breakthroughs were showing some progress with regard to nerve repair, but most of these were only in the preliminary stages, and carried a lot of risks. In all likelihood, she'd never be able to use her legs again for the rest of her life.<p>

Chiyo started to make very good friends with her wheelchair.

Ironically, her one key phrase in life had previously been "I'm not going to take this sitting down." Obviously, she'd have to think up something new. Because she was determined not to let something so stupid beat her.

So she coped.

Firstly, but understanding her problem. Chiyo made a point to ask the nurses who oversaw her recovery for some answers on exactly what had happened to her, not content with the 'your legs won't work anymore' they'd given her. She wanted details.

Apparently some damage to her spinal column had come from the debris that had crashed down atop of her. Signals from her brain called impulses wouldn't reach her legs the way they did her arms and other body parts. Her legs were otherwise completely healed, they just didn't respond to her thoughts. When some of them didn't even know themselves any more details than that, they'd brought some reading information, and later books from the doctor's lounge. Some of the terms went clear over her head, but she preserved, determined to understand as much as she could.

And, as part of her recovery, Chiyo underwent physical training to keep up her upper body strength, since she now had to rely a great deal more on that. Lifting weights was the easiest way to deal with any frustrations that lingered, she just worked them off until she was good and tired.

She was just finishing up her last rep when the glass door to her room slid open, and the curtains parted to reveal Toji.

"Hey Chiyo. How're you?" he asked.

"Pretty good," she replied, setting the weight aside. She flexed, showing off still decidedly small arms but ones that were rapidly becoming very firm. "Check it out. Whaddya think?"

He laughed good-naturedly. "Oh definitely. Who needs those stupid giant robots when Chiyo Suzuhara is ready to defeat the Angels bare-handed?"

She managed a chuckle at that, holding out her arms for a hug. Toji grimaced, leaning over to hug her back awkwardly. She knew he hated it, but that's exactly why she did it. Partly out of a desire to prove she hadn't changed one little bit as his little sister, and partly to get him used to the idea that this is who she was now, and he better get used to it.

"So uh, how was school?" Chiyo asked, wheeling her chair over to the table to get her towel. She wasn't sweating very much, but it had been in the fridge, so it was cool, and she wrapped it around her shoulders as he took a moment to shrug off his bookbag.

"... not so bad. I met the pilot of that giant robot that nearly crushed you."

That caught her interest. She'd heard all sorts of stuff about the pilots of the giant robots, or Evangelions as they were called, circulating the hospital. One of the most unbelievable (to her, at least) had been that it was a boy the same age as Toji.

"Really? So he's really a kid just like us?"

Toji nodded, then looked away. "He's even in my class."

She stilled a little at that change in his voice. She recognized that tone. Growing up with Toji, it was exactly how he sounded whenever he was trying to pull a fast one over on Dad. When he was telling the truth, but not the _whole_ truth. Sometimes it worked on their dad, but Chiyo could tell there was more to this story.

"Toji, what did you do?"

He pressed his lips together, refusing to answer.

"Toji!"

"I popped him one, okay? He had it coming! If he'd been piloting that thing better you wouldn't have gotten hurt!"

"Don't be a baka! It was an accident, you can't blame him!"

Toji spluttered. "It-! He-! It had to be done! Look I don't wanna talk about it," he said, turning his back to her.

"Tough!" Chiyo declared. "That boy saved the city from an Angel, in case you forgot. The whole city. Including you and me. It's the Angels you can blame for this!"

"Yeah well I can't fight the Angels, can I?"

His whole body shook, he wouldn't even look back at her as his fists clenched. Chiyo knew he'd never lay a finger on her, but still, she worried. _For_ him as much as _of_ him.

Finally, he shook it off, grabbing his book bag and throwing it angrily over his shoulder. "I'm going to the arcade."

"Toji! Get back here, damnit! It's not his fault! Toji!"

He stomped out without another word. The doors hissed shut behind him.

She slumped angrily in her wheelchair, her head dropping down low, black bangs obscuring her face. "It's not your fault either, you big idiot."

* * *

><p>Chiyo didn't see Toji for nearly a week after that, and coupled with her father and grandfather being busy at the labs, meant she had almost no one visit her.<p>

But she'd refused to let that ruin her days. She kept at her studies, she kept at her physical therapy. Depression was like a cloud hanging overhead, but she stubbornly ignored it. She wouldn't let it get to her.

The most terrifying part, however, had been the Angel attack that came that week. She'd barely woken up that morning when the sirens had gone off, and she'd been hastily evacuated along with the hospital staff to another one of the myriad shelters located deep inside of Toyko-3. She felt a chill wash over her very body, down to the bones. Before, she'd held onto the naïve, childish delusion that she was invincible, that nothing bad could truly happen to her. That accidents of the awful sort you read about in the news always happened to 'other people.'

But everyone was 'other people' to someone. And she was living proof that, no matter how people went about their daily lives, they were in the midst of a terrible war.

To her vast relief, the incident ended, the Angel was declared dead, and she'd returned to Tokyo-3 Hospital with nothing worse than some shattered nerves and a strong desire not to sleep. She'd stayed up late that night, reading by flashlight the medical journals left to her. Toji had come back the very next afternoon with a bruised cheek, stating that he'd apologized to Shinji. He'd already more than apologized enough to her, and for something that still wasn't his fault, so she let it go. Though Chiyo groaned as she realized he must've let the poor boy hit him to comfort his male ego. _Boys, _she thought. _They were all impossible_.

* * *

><p>It took nearly three whole weeks to get Chiyo released from Tokyo-3 Hospital, just a little while after the Fifth Angel was defeated. She'd spent much of the time in recuperation. The last day had been the absolute worst, when the doctors had sent a psychologist to her, worried she might do something stupid because of her condition. They didn't want her to give up and lose hope.<p>

As if.

But now, finally, after so long, she was being released. Toji was there, pushing her wheelchair as she was rolled out of the glass doors and to the streets. Once they'd cleared the air, he'd visited her almost every day. And now he proudly rolled her out into the parking lot, the blue sky clear and cloud-free above her, the sun shining down. It was a beautiful day...

... and she was spending it at home.

Chiyo been taken there just after being released, and although Toji wanted to stay, he'd only been given half a day off of school because of her, since none of her other family could come pick her up. It was notoriously lame, and she said as much as he shouldered his bookbag and got ready to catch the train.

He agreed. "Yeah I know it sucks but I don't have any choice. I have to get back to school, but you're still on physical therapy for at least a week, so I guess you'll have to stay home."

"By myself?" she asked incredulously. "What am I going to do?"

He shrugged, skipping out the door. "I'll be back soon as school lets out! Promise!"

She huffed, crossing her arms and trying to look stern, but failed miserably. Then the anger drained out of her and she slumped miserably in her chair.

She gave herself a slap, shaking out of her melancholy. It wasn't in her to be such a whiny little girl, and she had no intentions of starting now. So, she resolved to find something to do. Trouble was, the TV was still out of the question. The power was still not fully restored in the wake of the Fifth Angel's attack, and so cable was limited to two stations: static and blank screens. Neither of which offered any dynamic new plots this season. She tried doing some sketches but everything ended up horrible and tragic, she ripped out three pages of her book before giving up entirely. She even did a little weight-lifting, but all it did little to alleviate her boredom.

To keep from going utterly stir crazy, she decided to sort through some of her Mom's old stuff. Before she'd passed away in that accident at NERV, she'd been a part-time curator at the local Tokyo-3 International Museum, specializing in artifacts from the country of Egypt. She used to show Chiyo them when they were little, and still had a few pictures left behind in her things. Toji hadn't had any interest in 'dry, old relics' as he'd put it, and after a while, their Mom had reluctantly stopped including him on their trips, since it was apparent his interests lay elsewhere. But Chiyo had loved them, and been a most apt student.

Indeed, it was in part thanks to her mother's tutelage that Chiyo had discovered her own talents in history, writing, and other scholastic matters. At twelve years old (nearly thirteen) she was well on her way to being just as knowledgeable as most high school seniors.

Chiyo was idly sorting through the papers trying to find some image or other to take her mind off of things when a stray paper fell to the ground by her wheelchair.

"What's this?" she asked, puzzled as she picked it up.

It took a moment to puzzle over the wording, but it looked like a shipping manifest, nearly a year old. It had her mother's signature on it, and it had a crate and contents that had been shipped to the International Museum of Tokyo-3. The same place her mother had worked before the accident. Curious, Chiyo checked the date, mentally counting back in her head. Barely a week later, but the dates matched. Could it be no one had found it? That it had been sitting here quietly in the Suzuhara household this whole time without anyone noticing?

Curious despite herself, Chiyo resolved to take a closer look. If nothing else, it was a brilliant excuse to get out of the house, which was stifling her. Placing the manifest in her lap she rolled over to the phone and dialed a number on the phone and listened to it ring, idly winding the cord around her finger as she did so.

"NERV Laboratory, how can we help you?"

"I'd like to be transferred to a Mister Suzuhara please?"

"One moment please."

Several languid moments later, punctuated by elevator music, and there was a click. "Hello?"

"Hey dad, busy?"

"Extremely," he replied, his voice weary but seemingly lifted. "What can I do for my favorite little girl?"

"I'm your only little girl," she replied teasingly. "Unless you've got other daughters I'm not aware of. Did you adopt while I was in the hospital?"

"Chiyo!" he mock-yelled in protest.

"Kidding," she said, stifling a giggle. "Is it okay if I go to the museum?" she asked. "I'm tired of being home all day long, I need to get out."

Her father considered that. "Might want to wait until Toji gets home, at least. He can take you."

"Daa-ad, I'm not a little kid anymore, I'm nearly thirteen. And it's just a few blocks away from here."

"What if you get hurt?" he asked.

"I'll have my cell phone on me, and I'll call. I promise. Pleeease?"

A sigh from the other end of the phone, and she smirked, knowing she'd won.

"Alright, but be back for dinner at five. If not I'm gonna send Toji to find you."

"Thanks dad! Love you lots!"

She hung up the phone, giving a sigh of relief, and wheeled towards the door.

* * *

><p>It took Chiyo a while to make it to the museum, but thankfully the elevator was empty as she descend to ground level and rolled out of the apartment complex her family lived in. Typical of most Tokyo-3 homes, it was a collection of penthouse apartments, all designed to submerge beneath the ground during an invasion to allow the cities occupants and their possessions to be protected, even though most of them tended to evacuate during Angel attacks anyway. Chiyo rather liked it, though she'd been warned countless times to be careful on the balcony.<p>

Considering they lived on the twenty-fifth floor, it was a pointless warning. She wasn't stupid.

Not wishing to take the bus, and knowing the museum was only a few blocks away, Chiyo elected to roll down the streets, pushing the wheels of her chair by herself. Good practice, if nothing else. She saw the looks people gave her as she passed in the streets, alternating pity with revulsion. She stubbornly ignored them all, though it did not exactly lift her spirits to know so few cared about her plight to actually do anything to help her.

_Still_, she thought, _any obstacle can be overcome by a strong will_.

Her wheelchair came to a stop as she bumped into something, shaking her free of her thoughts. She looked up at the International Museum of Tokyo-3... and the long, wide staircase that led up to its main doors. The very, very high staircase.

"Though... some obstacles are more difficult than others," she amended ruefully.

* * *

><p>"City of Tomorrow, buildings that can go underground and giant fighting robots and they can't be bothered to put in a more convenient handicapped ramp at the museum," she muttered, finally having found the ramp and wheeled her way up it. It was located on the side of the building though, and seemed excessively steep. Then again, the building itself was one of the oldest in Tokyo-3, and not exactly receiving a lot of funding when budgets could be better directed to the almighty NERV that oversaw everything.<p>

She wheeled in through the main doors, dipping her head in a polite bow to the guards. She loved the museum, she found all sorts of interesting inspiration for her artwork here. Strange murals, ancient artifacts, medieval armories, any of which she could pull together into a drawing for her sketch board. She even saw a new wing being opened up in the near future that caught her eye, and wondered what could be found there, but ultimately, she kept going towards the office in the back.

Since her death, her mother's post had yet to be filled, so the office was unused except for storage, and kept locked by the staff. However, Chiyo had a copy of the key, and after a quick glance around to make sure no one was coming, slipped inside.

A sharp contrast to how she had been at home, the Suzuhara matron had been a very messy woman at work. Her desk was covered in papers and folders, as well as framed photos of her family and what Chiyo could only assume were colleagues and fellow museum curators and archaeologists. She recognized a few she's met over the years. The tall, dark-haired American with the rugged explorer look. And the spike-haired intern from Tokyo-2 who they'd lost contact with following Second Impact. Scattered amongst the shelves were various books on the study of ancient Egypt, including more than a few translation manuals on hieroglyphics.

"Now, if I was an long forgotten crate, where would I- Ah!"

And there, innocently sitting beside the desk, was the crate she'd been looking for. The identification numbers matched up to the paper in her hand. This was the last shipment. Her mother's final work, so to speak. For a moment, Chiyo just rested a hand on the crate, feeling... she didn't know. Edgy? Awe-inspired? Something, that was for sure. This was a momentous occasion, though she did not fully realize it at the time.

She used the crowbar lying on top to pry open the crate, thankful for her physical therapy for strengthening her arms, since her diminutive size and weight wouldn't help a great deal. Plopping it onto the ground beside the crate she leaned over to get a look at its contents, double-checking them against the lost manifest as she pawed through the foam protecting them.

A strange leather harness, preserved despite its age at nearly eight _thousand_ years old. The two wide straps of leather crossed in front where the wearers chest would be, a red stone of some sort acting as the clasp in front. The back had two metallic shoulder blades, possibly for resting a cloak or the like. She set it aside for the moment.

A golden scepter shaped like an ankh, with a shining jade gemstone set in its center. It was wrapped in silk, she needed to unwrap the edges to confirm it underneath, but set it aside with the others, being very careful not to touch the actual ankh.

Two armbands of a strange, silvery metal.

A headdress covered in dark feathers.

A tablet covered in Egyptian runes. She didn't recognize them, though she hadn't ever been very good with Egyptian like her mom had been, she barely kept up with the kanji taught in middle school. She'd have to check them against her dictionary later.

Finally, she came to the last item.

Lifting it out of the crate, she let the light fall onto the object in her hands. A flanged mace, nearly a foot and a half long, with a strong haft of the same sort of metal as the armbands and a rounded head, covered in blunted spikes. It was surprisingly light-weight, it almost fell into her lap when she lifted it up, and it felt so smooth to the touch, the metal cool beneath her fingertips.

"Amazing," she said. Because of her mother's work, she'd been around artifacts and strange tools and weapons for as long as she could remember, yet she'd never seen anything like these. There was something ephemeral about them. Almost mystical. It called to her. It spoke to her on a subconscious level.

Curious to learn a bit more, she set down the weapon and went back to the first item, the harness. Her hand pressed down lightly on the red gemstone, curious to see just how sturdy it was after nearly eight millennia of dis-use...

Suddenly, as if she'd struck a switch, it activated.

The steel protrusions on the back of the harness, believed incorrectly to be the hooks for a cape, unfolded. Impossibly unfolded to a much, much larger size than should have been possible, from tiny metal bars to a pair of enormous steel wings each almost as big as the dark-haired girl herself.

"Whoa!"

Chiyo stumbled back, her chair hitting the crate behind her. If she'd been standing, she'd likely have fallen flat on her butt.

"What the...?"

She leaned forward, amazed. Sitting innocently on the desk as if nothing was amiss were a pair of great metallic wings. Her mom's documents and photos were scattered all over the ground, along with half of the other artifacts, but Chiyo could only stare in awe. What she'd just seen shouldn't have been possible. Yet she couldn't deny the evidence of her senses.

She brushed a hand against the metallic feathers. Like the mace and the bracers, they were made of a strange silvery metal, not quite steel, not quite silver, that was cool to the touch and seemed remarkably light. Testing this, she picked up the harness. It didn't weigh anymore than it had moments earlier when she'd set it down, despite the new addition of wings. It almost seemed to hover in mid-air, though of course the instant she let go it dropped into her hands. She would've thought it was hollow, except it was solid to the touch. She even wrapped a knuckle against it to confirm. Definitely metal.

And exquisitely beautiful. Every single feather was finely detailed, almost alive. Like the wings of a great bird. Or an angel...

"Wait a minute... if this is a harness..."

That means it was meant to be worn.

An idea sprang almost fully formed into Chiyo's head. It seemed absurd, silly even. Then again...

_If God had wanted Man to fly..._

* * *

><p>It took a little tinkering on her part for Chiyo to make the wings retract, folding back into themselves impossibly until they were just the small protrusions on the harness. In the end it almost seemed like it worked just because she wanted it to. This she slipped underneath the seat of her wheelchair, returning the other artifacts to the now opened crate and sliding it out of sight under her mother's desk. Biting her lip, she wheeled out of the office, down the corridor, and out of the museum. Of course her chair set off the metal detector on her way out but none of the security staff had any reason to search her. They knew her, after all.<p>

She could scarcely think straight as she wheeled her way home, not wanting to miss dinner and have her father and big brother freak out and go looking for her. Her mind was wrapped up in the idea presented by the strange artifact, however. It seemed almost prophetic, how it had been found, she didn't even think of showing it to the museum staff. Technically, some might have viewed it as stealing, but the word barely even registered in her brain.

It felt... felt _right_... to hold these things. Familiar, almost.

"Chiyo?"

She blinked, looking up in surprise.

"Huh?"

Her father smiled indulgently at her. "Honestly did you hear anything I just said?"

"Uhm, something about being privately tutored from now on?" she asked, having only been half paying attention. The rest of her mind had literally been up in the clouds.

Fortunately, he nodded. "That's right, given the shortage of teachers and the distance to the only middle school still functioning in Tokyo-3, the education board decided to try and find you a private tutor until you're ready to join Toji in high school. Problem is, they're having some trouble finding one, so until then your education is going to have to go at your own pace."

"By myself," she guessed.

Toji snorted, picking up his bowl as he left the table. "Lucky you."

"If you want me to break your legs and get you some special treatment I'll be happy to oblige!" she mock yelled at him, raising a fist. They all shared a laugh at that.

"So yeah you'll be on your own for the most part while Toji is at school and I have work," her father explained, sipping at his tea. "I'm really sorry we can't do more-"

"No its fine!" she replied, a bit too quickly. Then, to cover her gaff, went on "I mean, I'm sure I can find something to do. Is it alright if I keep visiting the museum?"

She saw him hesitate, clearly reluctant to leave his little girl alone, outside of his home, for long periods of time. "Its as safe a place as can be, isn't it?" she asked. "Public, easily visible, and security cameras all over the place. Plus guards, most of whom know me already."

"She has a point," Toji chimed in. Chiyo smiled, glad to have her big brother on her side.

Their father reluctantly threw up his hands in defeat. "Alright, but I expect you to have your cell phone on you at all times, fully charged. I'll be calling to make sure you're alright every so often, so you'd best not forget it."

She nodded, plans already whirling through her mind as she set her empty bowl in her lap and wheeled over to the dishwasher Toji was loading.

* * *

><p>Unfortunately, the next day was Saturday, and Chiyo had to suffer through the longest weekend of her life with her brother and infrequently their father and grandfather (both of whom pulled long hours and additional duty at the lab) until finally Monday rolled around and Chiyo was left to herself again. Toji was staying over at Kensuke's house for a sleep-over, and her father had already called saying he likely wouldn't be home until very late thanks to some new troubles at work. Chiyo had the run of the house for at least a few hours.<p>

Grabbing the opportunity before it could escape her, the dark-haired girl all but threw herself into her wheelchair, zipped up a warm coat, and moved onto the balcony. The sun was just setting on the horizon, painting the sky with reds and purples, darkening to blue as it dipped lower and lower. For a while, Chiyo just marveled at it, then set about to do what she had come here to do.

She slipped on the harness, tugging it into place around her shoulders and her lithe frame, marveling how easily it fit her, and placed both hands over the red stone, activating it. The wings unfurled at her back as if they were a part of her own body, flexing and turning flawlessly. That was the easy part.

Now came the more difficult bit.

If Chiyo Suzuhara had stopped to think about this, some might argue she could see this as folly, or at the very least dangerous. But for all her intelligence, she was still only a twelve year old kid. Sometimes their logic was just a little incomplete.

Steeling herself, she breathed in deep. _This will work_, she told herself. Its not like she was jumping off the balcony. _Just... breathe... think about flying. Think happy thoughts. No, wait, that's just silly. Okay, focus... breathe... fly_.

Slowly but surely, she began to lift up out of the chair. The wings beat a single time, though that could not have been what was truly carrying her. The harness itself was levitating her entire body. It didn't even tug against her frame painfully. Chiyo Suzuhara was literally flying. Her legs hung limply beneath her, but she felt her spirit soar higher than even the birds dared to go.

She opened her eyes and hesitantly flew forward, willing herself so, just over the edge of the balcony. Her balance tipped, and her concentration wavered for an instant. The wings drew close as she seemed to start to fall.

...! she thought, pin-wheeling her arms as if to save herself. Finally, the great wings spread out wide and she caught an updraft, swooping over some telephone wires as she flew up and off into the night sky.

_Oh my god I'm flying!_

Chiyo let out a squeal, and without even thinking about it did a perfect somersault and then a roll, diving and arcing through the air with greater grace than an eagle. Nevermind walking ever again, she was flying. She was free. Despite it being a relatively warm night, it was cool up so high. The wind slashing against her face and arms, but she welcomed it, the invigorating feeling of being alive.

She finished her last loop and hovered there, wings outstretched, watching the city below. Tokyo-3 looked almost tiny from up here, lit by myriad lights like some sort of strange piece of sparkling jewelry. Chiyo was just about to go home when she caught sight of one light burning a bit brighter than the others, and dipped down closer to get a better view.

And that's when she smelled the smoke.

"Oh god, a fire," she whispered.

Wings drew in close, and Chiyo dove, dropping down between the skyscrapers to get a closer look.

Tokyo-3's firemen were already on the scene, and she dropped down on a high rise nearby to keep out of sight. She saw clusters of people huddled around outside of the building in various states of dress, none of them appeared seriously hurt, but one of the women was frantically shouting at the firemen who were working on a hose, her pale night robe swishing around her bare feet.

"My baby boy, he's still in there! Someone help him! PLEASE!"

That last cry struck a cord deep in Chiyo's heart. She couldn't look away from this. Without pausing to think she pushed off the high rise and swooped in towards the burning building's balcony. She had already caught sight of the little boy in question, a short-haired toddler still in his jammies and clutching a stuffed bear closed to his chest as he wailed for mommy. He couldn't have been more than five or six years old. Chiyo caught an updraft at the last minute and stopped at the balcony.

"Come with me," was all she said, holding out a hand.

The little boy all but leapt into her arms, and Chiyo dipped, panic gripping her for a moment as she realized she didn't know the weight limits of the wings. But thankfully whatever they were, they were enough for Chiyo and the little boy. Gently she flew backwards, awkwardly holding her passenger before lowering the two of them down onto the ground, less than a block away from the building.

She set her passenger down on a nearby bus bench and immediately turned and took to the skies again, not sticking around to be thanked, mortified that she might be seen by someone else. Thankfully, the firefighters were busy with the others in the building, evacuating the lower levels. No one else was in danger.

Satisfied, Chiyo Suzuhara allowed herself to smile a little as she lifted up into the night sky again and hurried back home before her family found her missing.

* * *

><p>"Someone, please! My little boy, you have to help him!"<p>

"Mommy?"

"Yuki? Yuki!"

The worried mother tore across the street and to the bus bench where her little boy was sitting, understandably confused. She did not even pause to think as she sank to her knees and threw her arms around him, holding him close, giving thanks to whatever divine being had saw fit to save him.

"What... what happened sweetie?" she asked numbly, unable to understand how this had happened.

He looked up, and she followed his gaze. The night sky twinkled with a thousand stars high above as they gazed up at the heavens, and Yuki answered his mother in a hushed tone of voice.

"A winged girl, Mommy... she saved me."

* * *

><p><strong>Next Time!<br>**"An angel! A true messenger! We are in the presence of a savior!" cried the Light of the Divine leader.

Chiyo frowned darkly, and slapped her mace into her hand, tugging on the top of the handle to activate it and letting lightning crackle along the spiked head.

"Guess again," she growled.

* * *

><p><strong>Omake – She'll be Back<br>**Chiyo flew over to the balcony and extended her hand, her face dead serious.

"Come with me if you want to live," she said, holding out a hand.

The little boy all but leapt into her arms. Behind him, in the apartment, the flames parted as a skeletal figure made of chrome steel stepped forward. Eyes of burning red swept the room before locking onto the floating superwoman and her new passenger.

"Hideaki Anno," it said in a thick Austrian accent. "I'm here to terminate you for future crimes against the Evangelion franchise. Asta la vist-"

Chiyo swung out with her mace at the steel man came closer, smashing in his head as if it was made of tinfoil. It swayed drunkenly, and she smashed its head in again for good measure, dropping it to the ground.

"Not if I have anything to say about it, metal head," she muttered, flying off to drop the little boy off somewhere. "Besides, the author decided time travel wasn't an option, so you don't exist. Plus, we're both kinda hoping I'll show up more in the next Rebuild movie."

"S-sounds good to me," said the little boy, clinging to her for dear life. "Uhm, I'll think about it?"

* * *

><p><strong>Authors Notes:<br>**Special thanks to Mike313 and Orionpax, who created the original (and sequel) Superwomen of Eva series. This story was written to add on to theirs, and I am grateful for the chance to use some of their ideas in a work of my own.

Toji's sister was originally going to be named Mariko, a name taken from the "Dark Lady of Tokyo-3" story by Mike313, but due to future plot options I've decided to rename her Chiyo instead. It'll become more clear as to why in later chapters.

Things may seem a little rushed now, with little to no explanation for why and how things work. Then again Nth metal and the Hawk family has always been quirky like that. However an expert character is being brought in for exposition purposes later, so please, bear with me until then.


	2. Avenging Angel

**Disclaimer:  
><strong>I do not own Evangelion or DC Comics. Please don't sue me, I'm poor.

**Summary:  
><strong>The loss of her ability to walk devastated Chiyo Suzuhara, the younger sister of Toji. That is, until she came across a discovery of her mother's. One that lifted her up into the clouds.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Two: Avenging Angel<strong>

It was early that same night that Toji slid open the glass door to the balcony, where his grandfather Hisao Suzuhara, was reading a book in his favorite patio chair. He often could be found here when not at work or asleep in his room, he found the sound of the chirping cicadas soothing.

"Hey granddad, you busy?"

The elder Suzuhara glanced up as Toji joined him on the balcony. Below, the city of Tokyo-3 twinkled in the fading twilight as darkness began to wraps its inky fingers around them. Another long day coming to a close.

"Not at all, what can I do for you Toji?" he set aside his book and tugged at his bifocals to bring them into focus, leaning back in his chair as he regarded his eldest grandchild.

"I'm... well I'm kinda worried about Chiyo," Toji said, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.

Hisao merely raised an eyebrow. "And why is that? I thought she was doing well."

"Well she's... well it's kinda strange how she's been lately. She was so quiet for the first week or so but now it's like the loss of her legs doesn't even phase her. Like she's been dealing with it all her life. I'm kinda worried she's taking it _too_ well."

"_Too_ well?" his grandfather asked.

"Well... yeah. I thought she'd be a lot more upset about it, I guess. Is that normal?"

"Well normal is relative, for one thing," Hisao said, leaning forward in his chair. He took out a cloth and began to clean his glasses as he spoke. "As you know, I lived through Second Impact..."

"Granddad, I get all I can take about that from teacher at school," muttered Toji.

The elder Suzuhara snorted. "I highly doubt he'll be teaching the true horrors that happened to the world in those first few years. It was bedlam. Chaos, riots, natural disasters great and small. I saw colleagues go through all manner of troublesome dementia."

"Dementia?" asked Toji, leaning against the balcony railing. That really didn't sound good.

"Well lots of people deal with stress differently," Hisao replied after a moment's thought. "The mind can do all sorts of odd things to cope."

Toji considered that. It definitely wasn't like how Shinji dealt with this sort of thing. If his friend had lost his legs he was fairly sure he would be shadowed by dark clouds day and night. Then again, he tended to be pretty much like that most of the time anyway. Melancholy was his default emotional state, maybe Chiyo's just happened to be joyful.

Plus, he'd gone back to normal fairly quickly too, given his brief ride in Unit One. Granted, he'd escaped intact, but it had been a harrowing experience all the same. Maybe it was some deeper instinct of humanity, to try and go back to normal no matter what happened to them.

None the less, where his sister was concerned, Toji wanted to be sure.

"That's kinda what I'm worried she's doing," he said. "That she's just pretending to be happy so we don't worry."

"Which makes you worry," Hisao said with a knowing smirk.

"Yes! I mean... well..."

"Well you've always been looking out for her... we all have since her mother passed away, God rest her soul. But you especially. Something that I'm quite proud of, I might add... but maybe you're upset she doesn't seem to need her big brother to protect her anymore?"

Toji grimaced at the idea. "Granddad come on, be serious."

He laughed. "Look, I admit I was worried too, but you know your sister, Chiyo's always been... good at dealing with this sort of thing. You remember when your Mother passed away?"

He nodded, not enjoying the memories. "She never even cried at the funeral," Toji said. "It's like it didn't even register."

"I'd be worried if I didn't think Chiyo was finding some way to deal with her emotions, but really, I think she's being genuine. No false fronts, no hidden meanings. I think she might be just a bit more rebellious at the idea that she has to stay all cooped up here than anything else."

The two of them glanced inside, where they could see Chiyo on the couch, tracing her pen along her sketch board, a glass of orange juice resting precariously on the armrest. Perfectly content, the wheelchair beside the furniture there almost as an after-thought, rather than some looming presence.

"Well much as I admire your dedication to your sibling, you can't smother her forever. Sooner or later she'll have to spread her wings and learn to fly."

* * *

><p>Chiyo Suzuhara may have been confined to a wheelchair, but she was still walking on air.<p>

Absolutely nothing could get her down. The very idea of what she'd done seemed ludicrous, but the news stations had been raving about it all the next day. How a mysterious girl with wings had saved a young boys life during a horrible fire. Mostly focusing on the fire, it seemed, but she got a mention, at least. She was a hero, albeit one who was grateful nobody had found out it had been her.

She didn't even want to think about the implications that would come, especially if they found out she'd been using artifacts she'd (admittedly) taken from a museum. Having tasted real freedom, she had no plans to trade it for iron bars and a small cell.

Chiyo wheeled out of the living room and into the kitchen, humming to herself as she popped a piece of bread into the toaster for her breakfast. She planned to eat light and be on her way as soon as Toji and dad had left for the day.

"Morning Chiyo," her father greeted from the kitchen table, not even glancing up from his newspaper.

She wheeled over to the table as she spread some butter on her toast, smiling as she spotted an article on the front page. "Can I have that when you're done?" she asked.

He shrugged, passing her the paper as he patted her on the head and wished her a good day, then straightened his tie and exited the apartment.

Chiyo eagerly dug into the article. She couldn't quite read all of the kanji, but she got the jist of it. There was even an artists sketch a few pages in, but Chiyo had to snort when she saw it. _She_ could've drawn something better than that in her spare time, and this person got paid for it?

"I'm heading to school!" Toji announced.

"No breakfast?" she inquired, setting down the paper, mind abuzz with plans already.

"I'll grab something from the vending machines, I'm already late, and if I don't get there soon..."

"Class Rep'll yell at you, I know. Get going, I'll be fine," Chiyo said.

He gave her a brief, one-armed hug, still holding his bookbag in the other hand as he all but ran out of the apartment and into the hallway, nearly colliding with their elderly neighbor on his way out. Chiyo giggled as she heard his shouted apology, already fading in the distance.

Leaving her completely alone in the apartment.

* * *

><p>On the edge of Tokyo-3's residential district was a small shipping warehouse. One wall had been caved in during the Third Angel's attack, and as such, the place was since abandoned. As hideouts went, it was remarkably cliché, but with so many of them forced into hiding from the general public, it was the best they could manage at the present time.<p>

A light clicked on overhead, and the three individuals stepped forward to the edge of the illumination, keeping to the shadows as they spoke.

"Is everything prepared?" asked the first.

The second figure nodded. "We've been watching the target for a good while now. Their patterns are remarkably predictable, it's almost like they don't care."

"So much the better for us," replied the third. "We're ready to keep Section Two and the police distracted at the anointed time. All you need to do is move."

"And you're quite certain of this?" asked the second. "We're strained for men and resources enough as it is. Steel hit another one of our warehouses the other night."

"That heretic will be dealt with in due time," declared the first. "Don't worry we've planned this extensively. Everything is in place. Very soon, it will be time for us to step into the light."

As he spoke, the speaker stepped out of the shadows, letting light fall on him. It was an older individual, gray-haired and wild-eyed, dressed in very distinct golden robes of the highest quality, trimmed in white. On his chest was a most distinct image, that by now almost everyone in Tokyo-3 recognized, and few welcomed the sight of. The image of a yellow flame with lines of light radiating out from it.

The symbol of the Light of the Divine.

* * *

><p>Chiyo took her time to enjoy her breakfast and the newspaper, as well as brush through a few mathematical books her father had brought home for her. Just enough to seem like she'd been truly studying. But after an hour, brother at school and father and grandfather at the lab, Chiyo decided she was alone as she was going to be. Without wasting another moment she wheeled out of the kitchen and to her bedroom, grabbing the contents hidden under her bed.<p>

It was three days after her first flight, when she'd practiced the wings and saved the little girl. But that had only whetted her appetite. Chiyo wanted to learn more about these mysterious artifacts. If the harness had become a pair of wings capable of flight, what else could the other things do? She was giddy at the very thought of it.

The main problem had been where to learn and practice with them.

Initially, she thought the museum could work, her mother's office was out of the way and largely abandoned, but the chances of being found out there were simply too great. Too many people, too many possibilities. So over the next two days she'd carefully smuggled it all out, hiding the various trinkets either on her body or under the wheelchair. She'd had one or two close calls, especially when she'd worn the bracers out underneath a long-sleeved shirt, but it turned out the strange substance didn't even set off a metal detector. Something else odd she'd need to puzzle over. In the end, all of it was now resting atop of her bed ready for her personal use.

"Hmmm, where to start, where to start," she murmured, examining each item in turn. Much as she wanted to use the harness again it was the middle of the day, someone might see her. So she decided to start with the bracers, snapping them onto her wrists and trying various (and sometimes even silly) things to see if they responded in any way.

She tried touching them, wearing them, snapping them together, waving her arms around. She was about to give up when her wild antics knocked loose the lamp sitting on her nightstand, and she flailed about, nearly missing a chance to catch it as she leaned over the edge of her wheelchair. But thankfully, she caught it before gravity could take effect and it could shatter on the ground.

"Huh, that's weird..." Chiyo said, noticing how light it felt. She held it in a single hand as if it was light as a feather. Testing that, she tossed it up and caught it in the same hand. Easy. Curious, she set it down on the bed, then tried to pick up the nightstand the same way. Again, it lifted up with unnatural ease, as if it was lighter than air.

A wild thought struck her, and before she even gave it proper thought she'd leaned over and grabbed the bed itself with both hands. It lifted up with ease. So much ease, in fact, it started to wobble, the awkwardness of it making up for its sudden lack of weight, and it tipped precariously to one side. Chiyo quickly brought it down before her lamp and all the artifacts were dropped onto the ground, and it came down with a mighty crash.

She winced, really desperately hoping the neighbors downstairs didn't hear that.

"Oookay," she said, removing the cuffs and putting them down. "Right. Uhm, let's try something else..."

She brushed a hand against the mace, enjoying the smoothness of the silvery steel it was made out of. She couldn't explain, but Chiyo really enjoyed how the metal felt. Like it was... alive almost. She picked it up reverently, marveling at its design. Despite being as ancient as the harness it looked almost modern. Maybe even futuristic.

This time she moved out of the bedroom and into the kitchen to practice. Plus, she was thirsty, and decided some OJ was in order.

She gave the mace an experimental swing, like a baseball bat. She'd never been very good with sports, never had the chance really, but she'd watched Toji practice a few times and wondered if there was any similarities. Swing, swing, swish. It carried through a lot on some hits, she had to hold back unless she wanted the head of the weapon to go wildly out of control. But it seemed like no time before she got the hang of it, and without a care she swung it to rest on her shoulder...

Crash!

She glanced up in alarm as her swing had knocked her drink off the counter and sent it crashing to the ground. The fragile glass had shattered, and her orange juice was staining the floor amidst the glass fragments. Thankfully, it was replaceable. She just needed to scoop up and hide the fragments. Not so easy when she wasn't able to reach the floor without lying on it, but she managed.

She'd also knocked the newspaper to the floor, scattering its contents, and crawled forward to pick them up and put them away as well. As she did, she glanced down at the newspaper now lying on the floor, with the crude sketch of her winged self lying prominently amongst the scraps. And a page underneath poking out, the title reading 'Superwomen' prominent enough.

The beginnings of an idea sowed in her subconscious.

She almost jumped up when she heard the door slam from the adjoining room. "I'm home!" called out Toji.

_Was it that late already?_ she wondered frantically. _Where had the time gone?_

She sat up as quick as she could and tugged on the cover of her wheelchair, hiding the mace beneath it as quickly as she dared. Not half a second before Toji came in and dropped his bag on the floor when he saw her lying there.

"You okay?" he asked, immediately at her side.

"Fine," she replied, hauling herself back up into her chair. "Just made a mess, I was trying to clean it up."

"Need a hand?"

"No I'm fine."

"Chiyo..."

"Really I'm fine!" she said as she finally settled into her seat, brushing a loose strand of hair out of her face. "What?"

She tried to look as non-chalant as possible, but thankfully all Toji did was give her a funny look and then went back to rummaging through the cabinets for an afternoon snack.

* * *

><p>Chiyo Suzuhara was going to be a superhero.<p>

Unfortunately, there was only so much time she could truly devote to this in any case. The last thing she wanted to do was let her family find out. This was her discovery, she wasn't going to share it with anyone. Not even Toji, who may as well have been another father the way he babied his 'little sister.' This time Chiyo was flying solo.

Fortunately, seeing Chiyo in a high spirits helped ease some of Toji's guilt concerning her accident, and thus, lifted his spirits as well. So he tended to leave her be when he wasn't fussing over her like a mother hen. Her father also indulged her, giving her ample space and giving only a few cursory calls to check on her studies and keep her on task. To his mind, anything that kept her from thinking about her loss was a good thing.

"Yes dad, really," she replied into the phone, holding it to her ear with her shoulder as she tinkered with the mace. Adjusting the handle, a bright glow suffused the head. "Hmmm... what? Oh, no, that's just the radio. Static, must be a cloud passing overhead," she said quickly, turning off the weapon. "Yeah I listen to the radio while I study. Helps me concentrate. Really dad. Yes. Of course. Well it's not like I'm learning how to disco, am I?"

She laughed, flipping the phone closed, and breathed out quietly, thankful for the near-miss. Then set the phone down and picked up the mace again, going back to her testing.

The radio _was_ on a music channel as Chiyo tinkered with the mace, trying to get a better idea of how it worked. She hadn't really lied to her father. Just hadn't told him _what_ she was really studying.

With a little fine tuning, she learned how to control the voltage of the mace but adjusting her grip on the weapon. The instant she let go of it, it stopped working all together.

It almost seemed like technology. But it was over eight thousand years old, from a time when the greatest invention was forged bronze. She'd tried to make sense of it, read through her mother's logs, the archaeologists who'd discovered the artifacts, heck she'd tried seeing if there was anything like this in a science fiction movie, but nothing gave her any sort of clue as to how they worked, only that they did.

"Magic," she said as she eventually gave up her research. "Only possible explanation."

She _did_ find out the artifacts originally had been discovered just after the Second Impact. Turns out the particular tomb they'd been found in had been only uncovered following the massive shake-up the Earth had gone through. Everything had originally gone to the New Midway City Museum in the United States, then the crate had been sent here for an exhibit, and lost in the wake of the Third Angel's unexpected attack.

"But Mom had it here the whole time," she thought. "And now nobody knows."

Nobody but Chiyo Suzuhara, at any rate.

Ah yes, she needed a costume. Preferably with a mask. That part solved itself quickest of all, the headdress she'd taken from the museum fit her head near perfectly. For the rest, well, she didn't want to fight in her school uniform. She needed something else.

To accomplish this, she decided she needed something practical. And that's when she dug through the closet and pulled out her old P.E. clothes.

A few snips of a handy pair of scissors did wonders to modify them, make it more like a costume, and the fact that it was much old, and therefore tighter on her frame, meant it was less likely to be a hindrance in a fight. Best part was, it was from a school she wasn't attending anymore. Even if someone traced it's origin to her old elementary school gym class, she wasn't participating in it anymore. The odds of them finding her were therefore slim at best.

But could she really do this? Go out and be a superhero? Now that she was ready, and had paused to think about it, it sounded silly. Besides, compared to raw powerhouses like Wondergirl and the Green Lantern, heck even Steel... she was just a small girl with a mace and a pair of wings. What could she do? What difference could she make?

Suddenly the radio cut out, the song she'd been listening to warbled and vanished, replaced by a broadcast.

"Attention people of Tokyo-3!"

She lifted her head from her work, curious who could overcome the broadcast. NERV maybe, which meant trouble. Possibly even an Angel attack.

"We are the Light of the Divine, who cast aside the shadows of ignorance and hatred! We who-!"

Chiyo quirked an eyebrow, wheeling herself over to the radio to nudge up the volume a little. She'd heard of the Light of the Divine, some crazy cultists who'd decided that if NERV was fighting something called an Angel, well, it must have declared war on Heaven itself. They were determined to see NERV and the Eva's destroyed, and had picketed outside of the school on more than one occasion, according to Toji. Personally, Chiyo thought they were nuts. Anyone who mistook the Angels NERV fought for the ones in biblical texts had more than a few screws loose, far as she was concerned.

"-pease the Almighty! And we have taken one of your pilots! THE pilot, no less!"

She blinked. "Wait, what?"

The broadcast continued. "And now, hear if you will the words of our captives. Read it."

A second voice replaced the first, much quieter. She had to strain to hear it properly for a moment. "The Light of the Divine demands the total surrender and dismantling of NERV and the destruction of the heretical war machines known as Evas. This will be done in three hours, or four o'clock local time, or the c-... consequences will be dire. We are... we're in good healt-" before being abruptly cut off. But that wasn't what made the blood run cold in Chiyo's veins.

That was Toji's voice! The Light of the Divine had kidnapped Toji Suzuhara! The pilot must've been Shinji Ikari. Toji had said they'd be stopping by the arcade today with Kensuke, maybe the crazed cultists had grabbed them up while they were in-between levels of Space Invaders.

_Oh god, what has my big bro gotten himself into now_? she wondered.

The original voice came back on. "-re willing to be reasonable, but do not put us to the test. Our cause is holy, and our wrath terrible to behold. If we see police or any of NERV's security forces anywhere near this building, the lives of the hostages are forfeit. Our demands-"

NERV would surely respond, but could they stop the mad cultists before one of their hostages got hurt?

Chiyo's blue eyes drifted over to the mace, resting on the table. The silvery metal seemed to call to her. Calling for justice.

Chiyo Suzuhara bit her lip so hardly she nearly drew blood.

"Guess it's now or never time," she said, picking up the headdress and tugging it down over her head...

* * *

><p>Far below, in the streets, pandemonium reigned. The local police had set up a blockade around the building where the Light of the Divine were holed up, one of the highest skyscrapers in the city, and several were busy trying to keep the curious populace back. In the skies above, two VTOLs hung back at a safe distance, as well as a helicopter and camera crews from local broadcasting stations vying for airspace with the T3PD and Section Two, both of whom were fighting over jurisdiction in the incident.<p>

"-don't care who they are, the fact is that three kids are in the-!"

"One of the hostages is Shinji Ikari," interrupted the Section Two operative, a man in a pair of dark sunglasses and a suit. "As such we have authority to over-ride the situation when one of the hostages happens to be an Evangelion pilo-"

"Along with two civilian students!" the policeman responded. "Now unless you have written authorization from your Command-!"

A screech interrupted the two men, as a blue car broke through their barricade by jumping the curb and coming to a complete stop inches before it smashed into a lamp post. Then again, given the state it was in, it looked like another dent wouldn't have mattered so much. The door slid open and a tall, long-legged woman with purple hair and a red uniform stepped out, striding over towards them as she yanked off her sunglasses.

"Misato Katsuragi," she said, flashing a badge. "NERV Operations Director. I'll be taking charge here. What's the situation?"

"Listen lady, NERV may be-!"

"Shut up!" she said, pushing the annoying cop out of the way. "I said I wanted sit rep." When the others hesitated, she added in a more forceful tone of voice. "NOW."

The young police officer stepped down, suddenly contrite, and the Section Two thug looked away, hoping and praying the Colonel wouldn't recognize his face. After all, it had been his lapse that resulted in the pilot getting kidnapped in the first place. He'd be lucky if all he got was fired for this.

An older policeman with a bushy moustache stepped forward. "We've secured the building, Colonel. There's no way in or out, but unfortunately the cultists seem to be well aware of this. They're holding up on the topmost three floors, with hostages at the very top. Any attempt to breach will give them ample warning and more than enough time to carry through on their threats."

"Goddamnit," muttered Misato, glancing skyward. "What about an assault from the roof?"

He shook his head. "Can't be done. The top floor has wide windows and visibly in all directions, there's no way someone could make it up there unless they were dropped directly from above. And it's too narrow for a helicopter or a VTOL."

"Snipers?"

"Moving into position. We need twenty minutes."

She grabbed up a megaphone from one of the witless cops nearby.

"Colonel? What're you going to do?"

"Stall," she replied softly, then flicked the switch and raised the megaphone to her lips. "Attention! This is NERV Director of Operations, Lieutenant Colonel Misato Katsuragi! We are willing to negotiate for the release of the Evangelion Pilot! Please state your demands!"

A voice boomed down from above, amplified by technology. "Ah, the mighty NERV comes beg for the release of their precious puppet, does it?"

Misato resisted the urge to growl, but just barely. "NERV exists for the protection of all mankind. What you are doing is fundamentally-"

* * *

><p>High above, in the captured office building, another cultist, in a white robe with less ostentatious ornaments, stepped up to the high priest and whispered into his ear. The older man nodded. "Silence! We see through your transparent lies!" he called out, his voice echoing through the megaphone and down into the street. "We know of your feeble attempts to rescue the pilots. You would bring damnation down upon us all. But we will not stand for it. And to prove how very serious we are... we will now kill one of the hostages," stated the leader. He lowered the megaphone and made a jerking motion with his head. Two of his white-robed cultist friends grabbed the arms of Toji, dragging him onto the balcony. The jock struggled for all he was worth, but he was outnumbered and out-muscled by the others.<p>

"Leave him alone!" shouted Shinji, only to immediately be knocked back down by another cultist. "It's me you want, let them go!"

"Shut up, boy!"

Shinji fell to the ground, lip split and bleeding, helpless to do anything but watch as Toji was dragged to the open window and hoisted up by the two crazed men and brought to the open window. He struggled with everything he had up until he very last minute, when he was pitched forward and out the window. Gravity claimed him an instant, and he was instantly in free fall.

_Ohgodohgodohgodohgod_... he thought, speeding past the floors at a dizzying rate. His eyes snapped closed, and he did the only sensible thing he could. Pray he passed out before he actually hit the ground far below.

Suddenly, something caught his jacket, and he lurched to a hard stop. He almost lost his lunch at the sudden change in motion, and glanced up in shock. He looked up, unable to comprehend what had happened, and then he saw _her_.

It was one of the superwomen. It had to have been. No one else could've gotten away with such an outfit.

A set of canary yellow pants encompassed her legs, with black stripes running down either side all the way to a pair of black boots. On her upper body she wore a top of a similar black and yellow, which left her small but very firm arms bare and stopped just below her chest, leaving her toned midriff visible. A modern belt with a buckle was slung across her narrow waist, and a heavy mace hung from a clip on it. A dark headdress covered the top of her head, a few black tresses sneaking out from the back as it served to conceal the top half of her head, allowing only a pair of blue eyes to peek out from their eye holes. The design flowed out to either side of her head like a pair of wings.

But was what was most curious was her face. What little he could see under the mask of the face was pretty, with a dainty chin and soft cheekbones that meant she'd probably blossom into beautiful when she was older. It didn't look quite angelic, but it did seem to give a measure of comfort on an almost familiar, subconscious level.

And then of course, there was the wings. As if he needed more evidence he'd been saved by a superwoman. They gave an a hard flap as the winged girl tried to steady their flight, though Toji squirmed, already feeling them starting to fall again. His legs kicked ineffectively at the air before he could stop himself.

"Relax, I got you! Huuunnngh. Damn you're heavy!"

Straining mightily against the additional weight of Toji, the winged girl arched their descent, using momentum to swing the two of them towards another sky scraper nearby. She dropped Toji as soon as it seemed he was a safe distance, and he landed with a stumble, falling onto his side. She was there a moment later, though she did not actually land, just sort of hovered a few inches off of the roof as her wings drew in closer to her lithe frame.

"Are you alright?" she asked, hand on his shoulder. "Did they hurt you?"

"I-... I think I'm okay," he said, his heart still racing from his near death experience. Then he suddenly remembered. "Kensuke! Shinji! They're still over there!"

"Stay here," she instructed, unclipping the mace swinging from her hip and flinging herself off the rooftop before he could stop her. Great wings spread out instantly to catch her, and the strange winged girl caught an updraft, circling her way back up to the very building he'd just fallen from.

Toji Suzuhara could only watch in stunned silence, unable to form a coherent thought until a stray breeze reminded him he was still close to fifty stories up.

_How the heck do I get down_? he wondered.

* * *

><p>"You see now how very serious we are!" bellowed their leader, again addressing the law enforcement in the streets below. "We have already been more than patient enough with all of you. We fight for the salvation of mankind itself!"<p>

"Sir?"

"Not now," he hissed, hand cupping the megaphone before turning back to it. "We are the Light that will cast out shadows!"

"SIR!"

"WHAT?"

His underling pointed a trembling finger, and the cult leader turned, just in time to see a small, winged girl with a heavy mace smash through a window and come crashing into the abandoned office, sending glass shards scattering everywhere. Half of the room's occupants threw up their arms in defense as she came to a halt in the middle of the room.

Chiyo instantly identified the hostages, recognizing Kensuke easily, and Shinji from the numerous reports she'd read about her own accident. Plus, they were the only two in the room who didn't look completely ridiculous in those silly white and golden robes.

"An angel! A true messenger! We are in the presence of a savior!" cried the Light of the Divine leader.

Chiyo frowned darkly, and slapped her mace into her hand, tugging on the top of the handle to activate it and letting lightning crackle along the spiked head.

"Guess again," she growled. "RaaaaAAH!"

Chiyo surged forward, swinging around with the mace to slam the older man in the gut. The force of the blow was amplified far beyond anything her diminutive frame suggested she was capable of, and the cultist was swept clean off his feet, flying through the air to crash against the far wall. Even if that hadn't knocked him unconscious, the electrical field by the mace would've done the trick. It was like being hit by a taser, it really messed you up for a good few minutes, but it wouldn't leave any permanent damage. Not that Chiyo was feeling charitable right now.

"Get her!"

Two more of the Light of the Divine threw themselves at her, one from each side. Chiyo performed a backflip through the air, trusting the wings to move her as effortlessly as an acrobat. The clumsy cultists crashed into one another instead of her, and she followed up by rapping both of them lightly on the head with her weapon, knocking them out.

She heard a click, and her head snapped up. One of them had drawn a weapon.

Without hesitation she twirled her mace around in her hand and threw it hard as she could, across the room, to slam into the cultists gut. He slammed into a wall, his shots going wild into the ceiling before he let go of the trigger and collapses in a heap.

_Maybe I should practice a bit more with these_, she thought as she recovered the mace. _I don't know my own strength anymore_.

She suspected the bracers and the harness had been increasing her strength, but she'd know idea just how powerful she'd become until this very moment. A ninety pound girl was tossing aside full grown men like they were cardboard cut outs.

Dropping another cultists, she took a quick look around, but found no one left to fight. To a one, all of the Light of the Divine were out cold, though she could see that none of them were dead, though they'd be badly bruised and broken for a long while indeed. No less than they deserved.

"Uhm..."

She tilted her head, spotting the Shinji and Kensuke, both unharmed and virtually untouched despite the carnage the room had gone through.

Shinji suddenly snapped upright, as if remembering something, and was on his feet in minutes with a panicked expression. "What about Toji?"

"Oh he's-" and Chiyo cut herself off, stammering as she realized that she shouldn't know who Toji is. Fortunately she quickly recovered. "Uhm, he's the boy who fell out the window earlier, right?"

"That'd be him," Kensuke replied.

"It's okay, I caught him. Oh, by you may want to send someone to pick him up, he's on the rooftop on the building across the street. Can't miss it."

"T-thank you," was all he said. And Chiyo smiled.

Then she heard a commotion from below, more shouts, and a few gunshots. Chiyo realized the police or Section Two had broken through the barrier and were swarming inside now. Not wanting to be caught, she clipped her mace at her side and made her way to the open window, pulling herself through and into open air again.

Shinji could only stare numbly, and wonder just what the hell had happened.

Kensuke, by contrast, had enough of a clear head to raise up his camera and try and get a few shots off. But by the time he had, their rescuer was a fair ways off, looping through the air as she dove behind another tall building and vanished from sight.

* * *

><p>After the masked superwoman had left, Section Two had burst in, half expecting a confrontation with armed and dangerous cultists. Thus they were understandably confused when they found the Light of the Divine lying comatose and battered all across the room and their objective, the Third Child, completely unharmed. Kensuke Aida was equally unscathed by the encounter, and both were released after a brief interview with the head of Section Two, a humorless man by the name of Chiron.<p>

Misato's relief had been much more tangible. Chiron had barely excused himself to deal with his underlings than the purple-haired woman had all but jumped on Shinji and pulled into him into a bone-crushing embrace.

"Don't you ever scare me like that again, you hear!"

The Third Child tried to assure her he would never do such a thing, but unfortunately, the taller woman had caught his head against her ample chest when she'd hugged him, and now he had to struggle just to keep conscious from lack of air and blood rushing through various parts of his anatomy. In other words, another perfectly awkward day for Shinji.

* * *

><p>If it hadn't been for NERV's official report, their father might never have believed Toji. As it was, Chiyo had to keep a very straight face the whole time to feign her own disbelief.<p>

"Simply amazing," muttered their father, feeling light-headed. Both of his children had been through near-brushes with death in the span of a month, Toji twice. At this rate he wouldn't have many dark hairs left, they'd all go gray, or fall out completely like his own fathers. He almost wished he could've moved them all away, but honestly, he was indispensable at the lab, and the lab was only located in Tokyo-3.

So like it or not, they were stuck here for now.

Fortunately, Toji seemed to shrug off his near-death experience relatively well, though he was quieter tonight than usual. He'd even offered to cook dinner, something he usually begged off because he hated doing it so much.

Plus, his skills were tantamount to first degree murder.

"I just realized how little I seemed to do around here," he'd said. "Seems like the least I can do."

The Suzuhara family patron allowed himself a smile as he watched his children go about their usual routine, and thanked whatever divine being was listening that the spirit for overcoming adversity was so strong in both of them.

Chiyo wheeled up to the table and poked a fork at the meal. Toji was a terrible cook, but she was hardly going to critique, at least he was nice enough to do something for them all.

To delay the inevitably horrible food from reaching her mouth she rifled through the newspaper, then paused as she caught sight of Toji's Tokyo Tattler copy on the table. Toji had been buying regular copies ever since Wondergirl's debut for news on the Superwomen, and since she now more or less qualified as one, Chiyo was curious (and a little nervous) to know if she'd made the papers. She scooped it up and rifled through it.

"Hey Toji, you made the news," Chiyo said.

He paused in his cooking. "What?"

"Yeah that kidnapping incident... looks like someone got a snapshot of your rescuer too, see?"

She showed him the picture on the front, which involved an amateur photo of Chiyo as she was flying away from the scene. The angle was much too poor to even see her face, and far too grainy, she had no worries someone would recognize it was her. But a woman with wings and carrying a mace was rather distinct all the same.

"Oh yes, the angel," remarked their father, finishing off his plate.

Toji smiled, then a thought came to him. "Oh hey, they came up with a new name for her too. Must've decided they can't call her an _Angel_, what with NERV monopolizing the rights to the name and making it our numero uno mortal enemy."

"So what're they naming her?" asked Chiyo, turning the tabloid back around to read the title. He answered her at the same moment she read it aloud.

"Hawkgirl."

* * *

><p><strong>Next Time!<br>**"But... there's no way we could possibly repay you for this," Chiyo replied.

Mayumi smiled, adjusting her glasses again. A stray ray of light caught the lenses, rendering her eyes invisible. "Oh I'm sure something will come up in the future. It's always good to have allies in my line of work."

* * *

><p><strong>Omake - Bad Publicity<br>**"So what're they naming her?"

"Bludgeoning Angel."

Chiyo spit out her orange juice. All over Toji. "That's the stupidest name I've ever heard!" she yelled, shredding the Tokyo Tattler into pieces with her bare hands. And then burning it for good measure.

* * *

><p><strong>Authors Notes:<br>**Obviously I'm taking quite a lot of creative licenses with the Hawk's Nth Metal equipment and their powers. But I blame the comics, its an even more confusing mess, trust me.

If Tokyo has a Tokyo-2 and Tokyo-3, no reason that Midway City doesn't get a New Midway City following Second Impact.


	3. Bird of Prey

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Evangelion or DC Comics. Please don't sue me, I'm poor.

**Summary: **The loss of her ability to walk devastated Chiyo Suzuhara, the younger sister of Toji. That is, until she came across a discovery of her mother's. One that lifted her up into the clouds.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Three: Bird of Prey<strong>

"We are not pleased by this, Ikari."

Distorted voices echoed through the black void, empty save for eight holographic monoliths and a single man standing on a long stretch of darkness.

"The safety of Pilot One is paramount to the scenario," stated SEELE-04. "If he is killed before we can begin we'll have less than nothing to start again with."

"Completely unacceptable," added SEELE-07.

"Well Ikari, what have you to say for yourself?" asked SEELE-03.

Deliberately taking the time to adjust his ever-present sunglasses, Gendo presented the outcome in a calm tone of voice. "The event is undesirable but will have no lasting impact on our plans. The situation has been handled and the pilot is now safe again," Gendo reported. He made no mention of the other hostages. "In addition, Section Two's lax agent has been... appropriately disciplined. Such an event will not re-occur in the future."

"See to it that it does not," replied SEELE-01 darkly.

"What about this new superwoman?" asked SEELE-06.

A holographic image materialized between the towering monoliths, a three-dimensional image of the newly christened Hawkgirl, albeit distorted by the poor medium in which it had been taken. Even with digital enhancement, they could not identify her, nor get any particularly clear details.

Within the past few months there had been numerous reports of women with extraordinary, even otherworldly powers, appearing in Tokyo-3. They seemed to flock to it for some unknown reason. Some of them were merely content to fight crime, some had even gone up against the Angels themselves, with varying levels of success.

The public adored them, and in that one respect they were useful, all too frequently news about NERV was sidelined against more colorful displays of heroism performed by the superwomen. And whatever kept the public and government from digging too deep into their affairs was welcome. But some of them were still a genuine threat to operations, so neither SEELE or Gendo cared for them.

Deep down, Gendo suspected part of it was out of a deep rooted jealousy. The arguably most powerful men in the world occupied SEELE, who could overturn governments and influence the United Nations to do virtually anything they wanted. Yet they were undermined and made impotent by females who had the power to block bullets and lift cars.

This new one, evidently, did not phase them nearly as much.

"She is a child," replied SEELE-01 dismissively. "No threat to us."

"The pilots are children too," Gendo stated calmly, more to be contrary than anything else. "Yet at the critical moment they will hold the power of life and death in the palms of their hands."

"Are you suggest we worry about this little girl and her toy club?" asked SEELE-04 in an incredulous tone of voice.

"Hardly," replied Gendo evenly. "Our focus will remain on the other, more prominent superwomen. We're already prepared and executed countermeasures for some of the more persistent ones. If we learn anything new about this... _Hawkgirl_... she'll be removed from the equation just as easily."

The 3-D image winked out like a candle that had been snuffed.

"If that is all you had, I have other business to attend to," Gendo said as politely as he could manage to stomach.

"That is all," intoned SEELE-01. "For now."

One by one the glowing monoliths winked out as the members of SEELE terminated their link to the meeting. Finally, only one man stood in the expanse of darkness.

"Paranoid old fools," muttered Gendo. "They'd have us jumping at shadows whenever anything with two X chromosomes put on some colorful spandex."

* * *

><p>Chiyo was a for-real-live superwoman!<p>

And she was SO bored!

Grimacing, she floated over to one of the smaller skyscrapers and sat down on the edge of the roof, tugging the mask back and rubbing her eyes in frustration. This wasn't anything like what she'd been hoping for.

For the first two days absolutely nothing happened. Not a back alley mugging, not a car wreck, not even a cat stuck in a tree.

On the third day she'd heard sirens and swooped in to save the day, but she'd arrived at the scene long after the Tokyo-3 police had pulled over the criminal and handcuffed him, leaving her with nothing to do.

A week after that, she'd been almost overjoyed (almost, she was worried about those people after all) to hear the bridge across the river was collapsing due to poor maintenance and a truck was starting to tip precariously over the edge by the time she'd arrived. But as luck would have it, she'd been beaten to the punch again, as a colorful blur swept past her, and before she could even blink the Amazon Princess had been handily saved the truck with her lasso. Leaving Hawkgirl with nothing to do but glide away before anyone noticed her.

And now, four days later, still nothing. She was starting to grow bored with her new hobby, it wasn't half as exciting as she was hoping for. So she'd split her time between patrols in the sky and tinkering back at the apartment with the other artifacts. She had learned a bit more about some of them, and she thought she had a resaonable command over the various tools she was not utilizing. It seemed to come like second nature to her.

Frankly, the only item she hadn't been able to figure out had been the ankh. The rest was easy, but the ankh seemed almost added to the mix like an after-thought. It wasn't part of the outfit, and it seemed to have no use. She'd tinkered and juggled and willed her mind at it for hours and it refused to do anything other than sit there like she suspected any normal Egyptian relic would do.

She'd just finished a sweep around the edge of the city, hoping she'd hear or see something coming from the slums to the southeast, at the very least, but the entire city was quiet as a mouse. Heck, at this point she'd welcome an Angel attack, nevermind she had no idea if she was capable of handling something that big.

Noon came about, and Chiyo sat on the edge of a skyscraper's roof, mace across her lap, chin resting in the palm of her hand, and gave a mighty sigh.

"What am I doing wrong?" she wondered aloud.

_Maybe this whole superhero thing was a fluke_, she thought. _I got lucky rescuing that little boy, and even Toji... but maybe I'm just not cut out for this kind of thing_.

Its not like she had anyone to show her the ropes, she couldn't get in touch with any of the other superwomen, and there was no way she could tell her family about her extra-curricular activities. She briefly toyed with the idea of getting Toji in on it, forming a brother-sister crime-fighting duo, but in the end, she wanted to keep things simple. That way if things turned out horribly bad she'd be the only one in trouble.

But right now all she was getting was capital B bored.

_How am I to find crime to fight?_ she continued to wonder.

Chiyo was blissfully unaware of the fact that her perch was stories above a sign, proclaiming the building she'd chosen as her resting place to be the First National Bank of Tokyo-3.

* * *

><p>Chiyo was just about to call it a day and go back home when she smelled smoke. Sniffing the air, she confirmed it, and she leaned forward in her seat, spotting smoke rising up from the lowest floor of the building below. And although it was distant, she could hear an alarm ringing from down below. People were alternately fleeing or watching from a fearful distance, which meant something was happening.<p>

"Oh... well... that works I guess," she said.

She tugged the mask back down and grabbed up the mace, pitching herself off the side of the building and letting her wings catch her descent. After so many days of flying, it had become almost second nature to her. Gravity held no more power over her, and no more fear.

The hawkish superhero caught an updraft only a few feet above the ground. A black humvee had been crashed through the glass wall of the building's lowest floor, no doubt as a prelude to their robbery of its contents. Shards lay scattered all over the ground. The front of the vehicle was crumpled like a tin can, smoke billowing forth from its broken engine. She spotted six or seven of them, wearing ski-masks and leather jackets. Armed with machine guns and a few pistols, and holding bags. Seriously? In this day and age they still wanted to steal physical bills? Money that could be traced? And barely worth the cost of replacing their damaged car? Even Chiyo wasn't that dumb, but then again she'd never made it a habit to be a career criminal.

Too many to swoop in and take out all at once though. Bullets would fly and she'd be at risk. Or some of the bank tellers and customers might be.

Time to try a new trick.

It was one she'd learned only the other day, and it took a lot of concentration. Gritting her teeth, she slipped in through the broken glass opening and climbed upwards, almost brushing her head against the ceiling, and focussed her will on her wings. When next they flapped downwards, several feathers, metallic and razor-sharp, flew through the air. Three hit their intended targets, knocking the guns out of the criminals hands. Two missed completely, and one imbedded itself in a thug's leg instead, dropping him like a sack of potatoes.

Cursing silently, Chiyo dropped down to ground level, mace primed and ready, lightning crackling along its frame.

"Get her!"

The two hoodlums still on their feet opened fire, and Chiyo dodged and ducked, the wings and harness pulling out of the way faster than she could've moved on two functioning legs, and she sped forward, giving a war-cry as her mace swung out, smacking down one criminal and then knocking the gun out of the hands of the next one. Another picked up his lost weapon and opened fire on the Hawkgirl, determined to bring her down before she spoiled everything.

She dodged his clumsy shot and used his wings to spin around, building up momentum. Chiyo swung out with her mace, catching the robber right in the side and sending him crashing into the far wall, almost hard enough to dent the plaster with his body.

"Ball four, take your base!" she exclaimed joyfully, even as she winced in the back of her mind. Still using too much strength. She needed a much lighter touch or she was going to seriously injure someone before too much longer.

That, and she needed to seriously learn to pay closer attention to her surroundings.

One of the burglars, previously unnoticed in the corner of the room, grabbed up a machine gun from one of his fallen comrades and pulled back on the lever, taking aim.

"Hey birdy, new game! Count the shells!"

With no time to dodge out of the way, she dropped to her knees and threw up her arms in a vain effort to protect herself. As she did, her wings responded to her subconscious desire for protection and whipped around faster than the eye could follow in a protective cocoon. As bullets flew from the weapon, they impacted against the steel wings, bouncing off as harmlessly as if they were raindrops. Chiyo wasn't even jostled by the impacts.

Refusing to accept defeat the gunman continued shooting until he'd emptied his clip, and then ejected the empty magazine, fumbling with another to try and reload and continue the deadly assault. Stunned to be alive but not taking the time to question it, Chiyo spread out her wings and took to the air again, swinging around in a wide arc so she could smash the weapon clean out of his hands, sending chunks of metal crashing to the ground.

"No way!" he cried out, his hands stinging.

"Way!" she replied.

She gave him a light rap atop of the head, but it wasn't quite enough to knock him out. All he did was go down, clutching his noggin and cursing up a storm.

_Okay, too little that time. Really have to figure out just the right amount of strength to use_, she mused.

She heard sirens in the distance, things were wrapping up here, but saw that one of the hoodlums was making a break for it out the opening they'd made earlier. The humvee was smashed, there was no hope of using it for his getaway, but obviously he was still intent on escaping. Satisfied most of the others were down and the occupants of the bank unharmed, Chiyo spread her metallic wings and swooped out of the open doors, grabbing the masked crook by the scruf of his collar and immediately pulling into a climb. He struggled, which didn't help, but quickly stopped when they ascended past the fourth story and kept going higher.

"Put me down, you crazy-!"

"If that's what you wa~aant!" she sing-songed, shaking his collar but being extra-careful not to lose her grip.

"No, wait!" his strugglings increased, nearly shaking himself loose. She decided to cut to the chase before he fell by accident.

"Now you listen up!" Chiyo yelled. "When I put you down, you're going to turn yourself over the police and never rob another bank in your life. Got it?"

"Are you for real?" he shouted back.

"GOT IT?"

"Yes! Yes, I swear!"

"And you'd better not," she yelled in her angriest voice, giving him another shake for good measure. "Because if you do, next time I really will drop you, got it?"

"Yes! Oh god yes! Please don't drop me!"

Chiyo set him down unceremoniously right in the middle of the police blockade right in front of the bank, giving him absolutely no where to run to by right back into the arms of the law. To her relief, she saw he did just that, evidently preferring a lengthy jail sentence to being dropped to his death. Good thing too, because she hadn't ever had any intention of doing such.

Her watched beeped, and Chiyo's eyes widened as she realized she was late. Speeding through the air as fast as she could, she dove and ducked between buildings, not wanting to go overhead and waste anymore time. Her father was meeting her at the hospital soon. Something about some big appointment. If she was late...

The wind blew through her hair as she sped along even faster, metallic wings flapping.

* * *

><p>Ichirou Suzuhara was not given to panic, but where it came to his family, especially his precious little daughter, he could get decidedly nervous. In a city on the precicipe of war with an enemy of untold magnitudes, this was a reasonable mindset to be having. Especially after most of his family had been through near-death encounters within the span of a single month.<p>

"And she hasn't checked in yet?"

"I'm sorry sir," replied the nurse. "We were just about to call you and verify she was scheduled for this time. But there's been no sign of Chiyo Suzuhara. She hasn't checked in."

"I'd better give a call," he said, reaching into his pocket to pull out his cell phone, dialling her number.

She didn't answer. After six rings, he went directly to voice mail.

"She isn't answering. Maybe I should go lo-"

"I'm here!"

Chiyo rolled her wheelchair up the ramp and forward into the lobby, breathing heavily. She hadn't had enough time to return home and hide everything, but she'd managed to tuck everything underneath the wheelchair out of sight. Her father never suspected a thing as he leaned forward and gave her a hug.

"Sorry I'm late dad," she said, out of breath. "Lots of traffic on the sidewalks today."

"Well it's alright, we weren't waiting long. Ready for your check-up?"

She nodded. "Mhm!"

Chiyo wheeled her chair forward, and her father was about to leave her to the care of the medical professionals when he spotted a splash of red on the bottom of her chair, where her feet rested.

"Chiyo you're bleeding..."

"Huh?"

He knelt down beside her chair, and her heart started hammering. If he lifted up the cover he'd discover her things. She'd be completely busted!

Thankfully, all he did was lift up her left leg, showing a shallow cut in the bottom of her foot. It looked like it was already healing over reasonably well, but even so, the fact that she hadn't noticed it sent her into a tizzy.

_Oh damn!_ she thought, realization coming to her. _It must've been one of the pieces of glass from the bank robbery. I didn't even notice it_!

"I uhm..." _Think think think_! "I broke another glass dad. I guess a piece cut me when I was cleaning it up. I'm sorry dad." To her relief, he bought it, though she felt her stomach twist a little at having to lie to her own father.

"I'll get a bandage for that," said one of the attending nurses.

"Honestly, you have to be more careful, Chiyo-chan," said her father, ruffling her hair. "I'll be back to pick you up in an hour or so, I have to run an errand. Be good."

* * *

><p>"Stand! Bow! Dismissed!"<p>

Reacting with mechanical precision, Class 2-A responded to the instructions of Class Representative, then dispersed for the day as ordered. A few stayed behind to handle cleaning and maintenance, some more were heading over to their respective sports teams for practice. Shinji Ikari just picked up his SDAT player, shouldered his bag, and made for the door.

"Hey Shinji! Check this out!"

Startled at being addressed, he relaxed a moment later when he saw it was only Toji and Kensuke trying to get his attention. Inches from the door and escape, he hesitantly made his way over to join them in the back of the room. Toji was packing up his bag, but Kensuke was waving him over to check out a magazine he was holding.

"Check it out. Latest Tokyo Tattler came out. Didn't get a chance to look it over during class."

"Is that why you were running late this morning?" asked Shinji.

"Yeah, that place took forever to open this morning. But check it out. It's the angel who rescued us from the crazy cultists!"

He slapped the article down on his table, prominently displaying the picture of the new superwoman.

"Hawkgirl," murmured Shinji.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, she's a guardian angel far as I'm concerned. And isn't she gorgeous?"

He spread his hand across the paper. Today's photo was a much better shot than the one taking during her debut, Hawkgirl was perched on one of the many rooftops of Tokyo-3 like her namesake, lying in wait for something to strike. Probably hadn't even realized she was being photographed, since the picture was taken from an angle and gave a view of her profile. The headline read "Bird of Prey keeps watch over Tokyo-3" in big black letters.

Even if it was only on page three, having been bumped off the front by a report about a politicians embezzlement, it was still fairly impressive.

"Oh what I wouldn't give to have some gorgeous guardian angel come swooping in to save me from certain doom," Kensuke sighed dreamily.

Toji snorted. "Yeah well, all I'm saying is don't go jumping off tall buildings just to get her attention."

Shinji actually laughed at that.

"Besides, she's like... flat as a pancake, look at her!"

"I know that, but check out those abs... mmf, beautiful..."

"I dunno, she just... I dunno," said Toji, throwing up his arms. "Not my type, I guess. I'll stick to Wondergirl."

"Pschw, and after she goes to the trouble of saving you from falling to certain death. So ungrateful," muttered the military geek.

Shinji continued to smile at their banter, but was slowly tuning out their conversation as his own thoughts rose to the surface. Talk of girls had reminded him of what he'd been told by his guardian. That the Second Child would be arriving in Tokyo-3 later today, and that she was a girl not much older than he was. Just like Ayanami. It seemed a bit sudden, but he supposed it would be nice not to always have to bear the brunt of the responsibilities that came with being an Evangelion Pilot.

Then again, he remembered how Ayanami was. So... distant. It took nearly dying to get her to smile. And of course there was the matter of his own mood. Hopefully the new pilot would be more... normal.

"What do you think Shinji?"

Snapping back to reality, the Third Child took just a moment to process the question and catch up on things before he took another look at the article and the masked, winged, flying superwoman prominently displayed on it.

"I guess she's kind of pretty," he reluctantly said, more to satisfy them than out of genuine interest. "And she has really nice... uh... wings?"

* * *

><p>Chiyo pulled herself out of the wheelchair and settled onto the edge of the hospital bed with a practiced movement, sighing wearily. Oh how much easier it was to move with the wings. <em>Stupid secret identity<em>, she thought.

The nurse was standing nearby, consulting her chart, when another doctor came in and spoke with her in a low, hushed whisper. Startled, she turned to depart.

"Wait here," she said.

"Is something wrong?" asked Chiyo, suddenly feeling nervous.

The nurse smiled in that patronizing way adults did when they didn't want to explain things. "Just wait here," she said again, and slipped out of the room. Leaving Chiyo all alone.

Idly she wondered what could be delaying her appointed check-up.

The door slid open. But it wasn't the nurse from before.

It was a young girl, not much older than Toji, with raven hair in two ponytails and a delicate mole on her chin. She was wearing the school uniform of Tokyo-3's school, and a pair of glasses. Behind her was an elderly gentleman in a crisp business suit, a jacket and briefcase resting over his arm and in his hand, respectively.

"Chiyo Suzuhara?" asked the girl.

"The one and only," Chiyo replied proudly.

Satisfied she had the right room, the other girl gave a shy smile and held out a hand to shake. "I'm Mayumi Yamagushi. Its very nice to meet you," she said formally.

"Likewise," Chiyo replied, still puzzled. "Something I can do for you?"

"Quite the opposite. I'm here to do something for you."

This threw Chiyo for something of a loop. "Uhm, what is it?"

"It's called Genitronic Rejuvenation Surgery," Mayumi explained, adjusting her glasses. "Have you heard of it?"

"Can't say I have," the younger girl replied. And she'd done more than a little reading on the topic.

"Its an experimental procedure, but if it works like my top scientists say it will, it should completely restore your neural pathways along your spinal column. Its not too dissimilar from the process involved in how the Eva's work, as I understand it. The mix of LCL and bio-electricity..."

Chiyo blinked, unable to keep up with the complicated chemistry involved.

"Mayumi-san," interrupted the older gentleman.

The mousy girl started, then lightly rapped her knuckles against her head. "Sorry, I get caught up in the work. I mean, it'll make it so you can walk again. All under your own power."

It was too incredible an offer to even contemplate. It was like a man dying of thirst in the desert suddenly finding an oasis. _No scratch that_, Chiyo thought. _More like an entire ocean_! To walk again, to run again, to even just be able to stand again...

But for some reason she was suspicious of the sudden good turn of events.

"But... why me?" she asked, remaining perfectly polite. "Surely there are plenty of others..."

"Your name was selected randomly from a list of potential applicants," replied Mayumi. "The procedure requires certain qualifications in order to guarantee success, one of them is age. You have the best chance of recuperating fully. That's the public reason, at least."

"Public reason?"

The mousy brunette looked a little reluctant to part this next bit of information, fiddling with her glasses for a moment. "Well... in part, it's for Shinji Ikari."

Now she was lost. "I don't understand."

"Ikari-san is a friend of mine from school, as well as an Evangelion pilot. I don't suppose you've ever met him?"

The younger girl shook her head. "No, but big brother has."

"He carries a great deal of guilt regarding your accident-"

"Which isn't his fault," Chiyo cut her off.

"I know that. And we could both tell him that until we're blue in the fact and he won't listen. Or at least, won't believe. So... this is a way I can help him as much as you. Right?"

"But... there's no way we could possibly repay you for this," Chiyo replied.

Mayumi smiled, adjusting her glasses again. A stray ray of light caught the lenses, rendering her eyes invisible. "Oh I'm sure something will come up in the future. It's always good to have allies in my line of work. So, what do you say?"

She hesitated perhaps half a moment longer, but then stretched out a hand and shook Mayumi's. "Thank you. Thank you very much."

"We'll get your father's approval for the procedure, of course, but I doubt he'll object, there's virtually no chance it will go wrong and, even if it does, you'll be no worse off than before. We could have you back on your feet in just under a month, if things go smoothly."

* * *

><p>Deep within NERV, in the room dubbed by most 'the lair' for its ominous and gloomy atmosphere, Commander Gendo Ikari sat at his desk, deep in thought. Things were not going smoothly by any stretch of the imagination.<p>

First there had been that explosion of the Bethany Base and his agent Ryoji Kaji narrowly escaping with the real prize, the Key to Nebuchadnezzar. Then there was that incident in the bay, with the strange Seventh Angel, which had not been anything like expected. No Angel of Music and Dance, no Twin Angels joined as one, just... some sort of odd hybrid creature that had been taken out solely by the spirited offspring of Kyoko Zeppelin Shikinami.

And while they'd secured the arrival of the Second Pilot and Unit-02, he was troubled by the appearance of the Angel in the bay outside of Tokyo-3. It had not been part of the prophecy in the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Angel had no name, no title, and no part to play in the scheme they'd spent decades bringing together. True, it had been defeated by minimal effort by the Second Child, but he was far from pleased. Because SEELE had not known it was coming, and neither had he. The Dead Sea Scrolls had made no mention of it.

Which meant either their information was inaccurate from the translations... or they had delibertly kept the information from him. Neither idea was promising. Which meant that Gendo needed to find more accurate information of what was to come next. As luck would have it, he had a good idea of where to start.

However, if SEELE _was_ keeping information from him, it was for a purpose. He had no desire to tip his hand just yet. This required stealth and discretion.

There was a chime at the door, and he flicked a switch, letting it open. His old professor, Fuyusuki, stepped into the darkness and made his way to stand before the desk.

"You called?" he asked.

Gendo nodded, hands interlaced before his face, hiding his expression. "I did, yes. I have need of you to get a hold of one of our unorthodox contacts. This one," he added, sliding a folded paper over to his Vice-Commander, who took it and opened it, checking its contents without letting them be seen. Though neither of them suspected any listening or monitoring devices were present in the room, they could never be too careful.

"He'll demand a fee, even just to speak to," Fuyutsuki remarked.

"Wire him the usual amount through our off-the-book accounts. That'll wet his appetite for now. The rest can come when he's here. I need someone capable for this."

"For what purpose?"

"What else is a thief good for?" Sunlight glinted off those ominous, ever-present glasses.

"I want him to steal something for me."

* * *

><p><strong>Next Time!<br>**Every other piece of her gear worked flawlessly. It responded to her will as if it was an extension of her body. But this was just a useless hunk of metal and gemstone, so far as she could determine.

She needed answers. From people way smarter than she was.

"Maybe its time for a field trip," she said.

* * *

><p><strong>Omake – Bad Gestures<br>**"Goddamn bird brat!" spat the criminal, even as a policeman threw him over the hood of the car and cuffed his wrist behind his back.

Hawkgirl smirked as she hovered a moment over the scene, and made a universally impolite gesture.

The crook looked a little shocked. "Did she just...?"

The police officer glanced up. "I think she just flipped you the bird."

* * *

><p><strong>Authors Notes:<br>**Due to her age and size, I've had to bump up the arsenal at Chiyo's disposal to put her on par with some of the other superwomen that Mike313 and OrionPax have re-imagined. This included making her wings metallic and her feathers dart-like, not unlike Archangel from Marvel. Plus, its set up for future plot elements.

Still waiting on Rebuild 3.0 before I make any solid plans, but hopefully this exposition will whet your appetites for now, and lead into future developements.


	4. Battles of the Beasts

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Evangelion or DC Comics. Please don't sue me, I'm poor.

**Summary: **The loss of her ability to walk devastated Chiyo Suzuhara, the younger sister of Toji. That is, until she came across a discovery of her mother's. One that lifted her up into the clouds.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Four: Battle of the Beasts<strong>

Ritsuko Akagi was not, as some claimed, as cold and heartless as she might've appeared on the surface. She was a deeply complex, very passionate woman. She loved science, seeing it as the beginning and end of all things. Much as she did enjoy the company of some people, she preferred things she could easily classify, fit into neat little categories and slots and see it all turning together like gears in some great big clock somewhere. Sweet simplicity. Black and white, one or zero.

Ally or enemy.

Right now things weren't adding up. And it frustrated her inner scientist to no end when things didn't add up. She was missing some part of the equation, she was sure of it.

She stiffened as she felt a pair of arms wrap around her, half terrified for one second it was the Commander. But no, that would require some affection. And in a public place, no less. Which left only one individual it could possibly be. The faux blonde stifled a groan even before he spoke.

"You're so tense," Kaji breathed. "You really need to learn to relax... take some time off from work, maybe spend it on a beach in a bikini..."

"If I did that this place would fall apart," she replied.

"Probably, but maybe some people are worried about your well-being. A pretty girl like you doesn't deserve to be locked up in here for days on end. That's why I came to see you, after all," he said sincerely. She didn't buy it for a millisecond.

"You did something stupid and now you're hiding from Misato," Ritsuko deduced, giving him a pointed look over her wire frames.

"Partly," he admitted without a trace of shame. "But can't I just be enjoying the company of an old friend as well?"

She lightly pushed him off. Encourage Kaji even a little and he stuck to you like a fly to flypaper.

He wasn't easily discouraged however. He spun against her push, flopping down into an office chair nearby, and kicked off against a nearby table, propelling him over to a far terminal. "So what's with all the light reading?" he asked, tapping in some keys. The screen lit up, mirroring Ritsuko's. A dossier on the Green Lantern, with all information the public, and therefore NERV, had on her.

"Oooh, pretty," he said, admiring the photo. "I wonder if she's single?"

"She can probably do a lot better than you," Ritsuko replied, not looking up from her work. With a few keystrokes of her own, she shut off the connection to Kaji's terminal, a screen replacing the image with a bright red sign and a very distinct 'No' in white.

He chuckled at her display, entirely un-phased by it, then pushed against the far wall and wheeled his chair over beside hers.

"What's with all the interest in the superwomen, anyway? Commander order them all taken down, and figured you'd be the best to devise a way to do it?"

She stiffened, but quickly controlled the impulse to deny such, even though it was in her best interest to do so. Instead, she took a page from Misato's book, and redirected the conversation. "The MAGI have identified an anomaly. I'm trying to ascertain what it means."

"What anomaly? Something Angelic?" he asked curiously.

Ritsuko shook her head. "Not exactly. So far all of the 'superwomen' have shown up as red patterns," she explained. "Even some of the strangest of them. But there's been one exception, and it's been bugging the MAGI units ever since it came up. Readings are coming up inconclusive for the past three days, and they've gone into recursive sync with themselves."

"Hmm, fascinating... you don't say..." Kaji intoned, gazing up at the far wall. Ritsuko's tiny lips turned up into an almost vicious smirk.

"You have absolutely no idea what that means, do you?"

"Not a clue," he replied non-challantly, giving a wry grin. "Does it show?"

She tugged her glasses from her face, feeling a headache coming on. "A red pattern is human," she explained. "A blue pattern is an Angel. Orange means that the MAGI have yet to identify it. A temporary unknown..."

"That much I remember," her unshaven comrade said. "But that's a good thing, right? All the super babes are red pattern... ergo... human. Or at least on our side. Right?"

She shrugged non-committedly. Unlike most of her co-workers, Ritsuko had never been the biggest fan of the superwomen. They had the potential of great power, but also great danger. She knew that better than most.

"But then we have this one," said Ritsuko, tapping the screen. An array of pictures scrolled past, along with profiles. Most were taken straight from the Tokyo Tattler, some weren't even photos, just artist sketches. Not all of the superwomen enjoyed the spotlight. There wasn't even an image for Blue Beetle, which was odd considering she was a JSDDF poster girl. But the image Ritsuko was indicating was near the end, of the winged teenager with a mace.

"Hawkgirl," Kaji identified.

"Right. Her pattern comes up purple. Which doesn't make sense. Even the MAGI don't seem to understand why, and they're the ones giving the analysis! Rrrr," she grumbled, ruffling her faux-blonde hair. "Doesn't make sense!"

"Could she be... I dunno... half-Angel or something?" her unshaven co-worker asked. "I mean I've seen some of those monsters, they don't look very compatible with Earth girls, but..."

"Oh stop being an idiot!" she spat at him, frustrated. "No she can't be half-Angel. I uh... I don't think. It shouldn't be possible! I mean the idea of mixing the Angel genetics with human tissue...!"

Her eyes widened as a sudden thought sunk in.

"... is... is ludicrous!" she continued.

"But isn't that how we designed the Eva series?" asked Kaji. "Cloning Angel DNA and using a human pilot?"

"It took us decades to come to anything even close to that," replied Ritsuko. "And besides, the MAGI aren't in a tizzy about the Eva series this way. This is different. Now get out of here, you're distracting me."

He shrugged, hands in his pockets as he made his way to the door. "Oh alright, I guess I'll just clock out, its nearly quitting time anyway and I've got an appointment to keep. Don't work too late, Ritsuko."

She waited until he was gone, typing rapidly into the keyboard. She couldn't do all of her research here, not in a monitored office. And it was so awful, horrifying a thought she hoped it wasn't true but... she needed to disprove her theory soon.

Because if it _was_ true, it meant there was _another_ big player in the Scenario.

* * *

><p>Over the course of her superhero career, Hawkgirl had faced down lots of strange opponents. Bank robbers, cultists, car jackets, pick pockets and armed gunmen. She never fully understood the rationale behind their deeds, but she knew enough to know what they were trying to do and how to thwart them. Her parents had done their best to raise her well, after all.<p>

But her opponent was as inscrutable as ever. She had to approach this delicately.

"Look just... talk to me, maybe? There's no reason for us to fight."

They remained silent.

Growling, Chiyo grabbed up the ankh and tossed it across the bed, hitting her pillow and landing there, still lying perfectly inert. The same way it had been for weeks now.

She knew there was some deeper mystery to it, she just knew it. It wasn't even that it had been amongst her mother's things anymore, it felt the same as her as the other artifacts. It had the same invisible aura to it, the same tingling touch. Something... familiar. It was like waking up from a dream. You knew you had one and you could remember only the fuzziest of details, but the harder you thought about it the more it all slipped away.

Every other piece of her gear worked flawlessly. They responded to her will as if they were an extension of her body. She was still finding out new things about the harness, bracers, and mace. But this was just a useless hunk of metal and gemstone, so far as she could determine.

She needed answers. From people way smarter than she was.

But who to ask? She'd already gone over how she couldn't let her family know, or else she'd have to tell them where she got it. Even if she could continue to hide she was Hawkgirl, it'd be taken back to the museum and she'd likely never see it again except behind a glass exhibit.

_If only Mom was still here..._

Sighing, she wheeled out of her room and into the living room, grateful the day of her upcoming surgery was getting ever closer. She'd be so happy when this heavy thing was gone.

Then again, she would have to give new thought on where to hide her mace... maybe she was old enough to start bugging dad for a large purse... or maybe a bookbag... the harness would be easier, it fit under most jackets, even though it was usually pretty warm out this time of year...

Squeak. Squeak. Squeak. Gawd it was annoying. Maybe she should oil the wheels before it became too annoying to bear.

Chiyo rolled into the kitchen, reaching for her plate and letting Toji hand it to her when it became apparent she couldn't quite manage. Mundane topics passed the lips and ears of the Suzuhara family on this peaceful Sunday morning. Mostly school related, work, schedules, the local arcade, and plans for the evening meal. She only listened with half an ear until Toji made some remark about how she was lucky not to have to listen to his professor's lectures.

Which reminded her of something.

"Any luck with finding that tutor?" she asked, turning to her father. Much as she didn't want someone crowding her free time to go out and be Hawkgirl, it would seem weird if she didn't at least bring it up every so often as if she cared.

"We had one potential applicant, I was going to speak to them this Tuesday to see what they're like."

Maybe Chiyo could meet them as well. If they were a problem she could make up an excuse or some such, delay the process a little.

"Toji don't you have somewhere to be today?" asked their grandfather, rummaging through the fridge for his orange juice.

"Oh yeah, I was invited to come along to the new aquarium by Shinji's friend Kaji-san... he wanted to invite you as well sis, but the facility isn't handicap accessible just yet so..."

She smiled, not offended. "It's okay, I don't like that sort of thing anyway. But you have fun, take pictures, and I'll live vi-viva... uhm, hat's that word where I live through you?"

"Vicariously," intoned their father, then stretched out the word by syllable. "And I'm sure another trip can be arranged. After your surgery."

She gave an overly dramatic sigh. "Not long now..." she murmured, as her wheelchair was rolled out from under the table and she headed back to her room.

Squeak. Squeak. Squeak.

"I just hope Kensuke doesn't break anything important. I just know he's going to get us in trouble one day, hoping his little angel will save him again. I've heard enough about her after he finished his report on the Hawkmen in class."

Squeak-squeak-squeak. Chiyo was suddenly back by his side. "I'm sorry, what did you say?" she asked, voice trembling as she tried to sound casual.

"Kensuke's report. We had to do one on a Pre-Second Impact Phenomenon, and he chose to do research the old Hawkmen. Apparently there have been one or two in almost every generation. Most of them lived in America or Europe though. Ours is the first to visit Japan."

This was new, Chiyo thought, her mind running a million miles a minute. She'd known the gear was old, but if it had been used before, if someone else had been a Hawkgirl, or a Hawkman...

"Any chance you can get me a copy?"

He grimaced. "Don't tell me you're turning into a fangirl too," Toji said.

"Hawkgirl saved my big brother's life. I could not be more grateful to her, whoever she is," Chiyo intoned in a completely serious voice. The irony only resonated in the back of her mind, even if what she said _was _true.

Toji smiled, chuckling self-consciously. "Sure, I'll ask Kensuke if I can get a digital copy. He backs up most of his work just in case so he ever loses it. Same with all of his videos."

Chiyo nodded dimly, her mind racing. There was also the possibility of more answers available at the museum.

"Maybe it's time for a field trip," she murmured.

"Hmmm?"

"Oh!" she started, realized she'd spoken out loud. "Uhm, I thought I'd go visit the museum again today, if that's okay. I kinda wanted to check out the new exhibit in the east wing."

Her father smiled indulgently. "Certainly, that sounds wonderful. I think I'll come along this time."

Chiyo stilled. "Uhm, don't you have work?" Her father was very important middle man in the organization, and usually even weekends weren't completely free for him, though he did have reduced hours.

"Oh my supervisor gave me the day off, the project we're working on needs a few more days to... incubate," he explained. "Besides, I've been neglecting my little girl. Time for some quality Daddy-Daughter time."

Not ideal but she could still get some answers if she was quiet about it. And no real choice now, he was coming, and she couldn't back out without looking very odd.

"I'll get my coat," she said, even as Toji bid them all a farewell and skipped out the doorway so he could catch up to his two best friends and their planned outing for the day.

* * *

><p>As he slithered up the back of the Museum and into the ventilation system with all the grace and fluidity of a serpent, the thief Gendo Ikari had hired took a moment to reflect on his past and the circumstances that had brought him to be where he was now.<p>

He rarely thought much about his past, and for good reason, it wasn't pretty. Born to circus performers and raised to be one, a gift contortionist and acrobatic in a third-rate freak show that formed in the days following Second Impact in Latin America. He might've languished the rest of his days being pelted with boos and rotten fruit, picking pockets to earn enough money to feed himself, and otherwise been mistreated and ridiculed.

And worse of all, oh very worst of all, no one even remembering his name.

But then all that had changed with the splicing.

Genetic experiments had been on the rise even before Second Impact, and afterwards gene-splicing and cross-species genetics had been given even greater prevalence and even some free reign by some of the remaining governments. He'd just been unlucky enough to have been picked up by one of the worst. He hadn't even signed a consent form before the needle and its unholy DNA cocktail had plunged into his body.

He'd like to think that whom he was, the petty circus performer Nathan Prince, had perished in those experiments. And who he was now had been born in them.

Shaking his head to clear his mind, the thief peered down the long stretch of ventilation tunnels, sitting dead center of the labyrinth, and listened. Enhanced hearing picked up the scurry of tourists and security guards, the hum of the A/C units working to keep the place cool. So cool, in fact, he was starting to feel sluggish. He wasn't cold-blooded but his body temperature was still pitched lower than the average humans, and it was very uncomfortable for him to be in such a cool place for a long period of time.

He still could've waited. Or even left, then come back in the middle of the night, bypass every security guard and slip through the joke security system. No one would even know he was there. But he was getting bored already, and really, where was the fun if he didn't at least make it a challenge for himself? Back in the America's he'd already made quite the name for himself, it was time Japan knew the name as well.

Besides, Commander Ikari's fee included silence and anonymity, but long as no one found out what happened to the relic, who cared who knew it was taken by him?

He slipped down one ventilation shaft too narrow for most normal people to crawl through, and pushed at the grating which led into the Women's Restroom.

"Ladiess and Gentlemen, it'ss sShow time!"

* * *

><p>Tokyo-3 International Museum boasted an impressive crowd that day, and Chiyo for a moment felt almost claustrophobic. Being so small, with everyone towering above her, it was a wonder she could see anything at all except for an endless sea of suits, dresses, and tacky tourist shirts. And it was even worse when her father insisted on pushing her chair for her, so her arms could rest. Chiyo couldn't control where she was going like she used to. But it certainly made getting through the crowds easier with two sets of eyes watching.<p>

Besides, she did have to admit privately, it was kind of nice to be wheeled around by someone other than herself. Chiyo felt pampered. Privileged, even. All she had to do was point and her dad happily wheeled her along, navigating effortlessly through the crowds.

"So, which way now?" he asked, after she'd had her fill of prehistoric dinosaur bones and Colonial America relics.

She tapped a finger against her chin, thinking, when suddenly she spotted a new exhibit hall open across the way, and immediately pointed to it. "That one!"

"That one?" he asked. "Israelic Treasures? Sure, if you like old vases and scrolls, I suppose..."

She giggled, knowing full well there was more to it than that. So did he, and he was just as fascinated as she was, else why marry a part time historian?

"This looks new," he remarked.

"Must've recently opened," she replied, pausing to read a passing sign. "Everything here is on loan from the United States. I wonder why they'd risk relics in a city like Tokyo-3? We're the front line of the biggest war in the universe!"

Her father smiled good naturedly. "I'm sure they're just here temporarily. Ah, see? They're doing a tour of the Asian countries, this exhibit is only here for a week then it moves on to China."

The dark-haired girl nodded, taking a look at some of the relics, reading up on the histories, admiring the look and design of old things. Even beyond the interest she had in the mystery of Hawkgirl's equipment, she'd always loved the Egyptian and other Ancient civilizations. And especially the mythology.

They were passing by an archway separating one part of the exhibit from the next when Chiyo spotted something.

She caught a flicker over by the far window, out of the corner of her eye. Something pale and distorted amidst the gray shadows of passerby and visitors. But when she turned her head to look... it was gone.

_What was that? A boy?_

"Chiyo? Everything alright? You look pale..."

She shook her head to clear it, but spared one last glance in that direction to make sure there was nothing there. There wasn't.

"Sure dad, just... I dunno, kinda distracted. Like I'm not all here, ya know?"

He nodded in understanding. "I get like that sometimes," he said. "Too much going on in the head... that's why it's good to get out and relax sometimes."

"Yeah, I..." she started to reply, when she spotted something. She grabbed the wheels, wincing as she felt them tug against her palms, but stopped her dad flat. He bumped into her as they came to an abrupt halt.

"What is it?" he asked.

"That," Chiyo replied, pointing.

A series of dark, brown with age pages lined the top of the exhibit, but there was also a space below, and a resting place as if waiting for something else besides the transcripts detailing the exhibit.

"The Dead Sea Scrolls?" asked her father, puzzled by her interest.

Chiyo peered over at the transcripts, recognizing the shape of the resting place. "Centerpiece lost in destruction of Tokyo-3 downtown during Third Angel attack," she read aloud. "Lost..."

It was the ankh. It had to be. It was somehow related to these Dead Sea Scrolls, whatever they were. She kept reading.

"... located in approximately fifty years Pre-Second Impact... religious manuscripts... fragments of a larger collection... theorized _Egyptian_ origin despite discovery in Israel nearly five thousand years later..."

She felt the ankh press against the small of her back where it had been hidden, and felt her hands ache, wanting to bring it out and put it on the display, see what happened. Chiyo knew something was here. She knew it.

_Where did these things come from_? she wondered. _And why are they so ancient yet seem to be more advanced than any sort of science mankind has yet discovered?_

Shrieks of terror interrupted her reverie, and she turned to see a dozen women come screaming out of the restrooms nearby.

"What the hell?" she asked, eyes wide in shock.

"Chiyo, langua-..." her father started to admonish her, then watched in surprise as the screaming women were followed by something that was definitely not a female. No, what emerged from the restrooms looked barely human.

Chiyo saw him too. A tall, wiry thin individual, with a gaunt look. But surprisingly young. He didn't look much older than her brother, actually, but he was almost half a foot taller. Dull orange spandex covered him in a garish snake outfit, faded green gloves, boots, and pants the only thing that broke the monotony of that awful color. The top of his hooded head opened up into a snake's hood, the top of which came down in front of his forehead in a pair of long fangs.

But his face was what was truly terrifying. Inhuman, even. He had all the right features, two eyes, nose and mouth, but they were all twisted. The nose too narrow, the mouth wide and gaping, with sharp fangs fitted at top. And his eyes were mere slits of black against the white, with no sign of any iris.

If it had been Halloween, she might've thought it a good costume.

As it was...

"Helllooooo Tokyo-3!" shouted the strange man, arms upraised like he was a rocker guitarist at some rave. "Whoss ready to party?!" he called out, his voice a sibilant hiss.

An armed security guard, thinking this was just some costumed nut, especially based on his performance, unholstered his gun and reached out to grab the guy's shoulder.

"Alright you-!"

Without even glancing back, the snake-themed man swung out his fist over his shoulder, clocking the guard hard on the nose and sending them crashing to the ground. He moved with shocking speed and power, the blow might as well have come from a brick... that struck like a cobra.

As if the violent act was a cue, everyone suddenly started running.

Many more started screaming.

Men, women, children with their parents, old men coming to see artifacts older than they. All of them, running as fast as they could. In every direction but towards the copper-clad individual who'd just laid out a security guard with his bare hands. Many got caught in the mad rush to escape, as an entire horde of people found an intense desire to squeeze through the narrow doors of the museum to the safety found outside.

The snake man rolled his head and his eyes, his shoulders slumping in disappointment, then made his way past and through the fleeing droves towards his destination: heading right for Chiyo and her father.

Misunderstanding his intent, her father threw himself in front of Chiyo and her wheelchair. "Get back you!"

"Out of my way, old man!" he moved to shove Chiyo's father aside, sounding bored.

Her father threw a punch, but the snake man just slid underneath it, effortlessly, fluidly snaking around the much larger man to the back of his legs. Fangs flashed in the light as Copperhead's head came down swiftly, burying the inch-long fangs of his costume into Ichirou Suzuhara leg, just below his knee. Chiyo's father cried out and sank to one knee, clutching his injured leg.

Chiyo screamed.

The monster shaped like a man sprang up, landing before her and grasping armrests, holding her wheelchair firmly in place as he glared down at her ominously.

"What the hell are you?" she said, leaning back, well away from his glistening fangs.

"Jusst a ssimple thief," replied the lizard man. "Namess Copperhead. Perhapss you've heard of me?"

"C-Can't say I have," she wondered, feeling her heart pounding in her chest. She should've been screaming her head off, but kept felt calm. Weeks of battling armed criminals must've helped dull her survival instincts to extreme danger. Right now she wasn't sure if that was helping or not.

The click of guns altered both bird and snake to the arrival of the security guards. They'd formed a pair of lines, one kneeling, one standing, with all sixteen of their standard issue pistols pointed right at Copperhead.

"Freeze, snake!"

Copperhead blinked in surprise, then his ugly face contorted into a grin, showcasing his fangs. He slipped part ways behind Chiyo, grabbing the back of her wheelchair.

_Oh god_, though Chiyo, almost disgusted as well as horrified. _He's gonna take me hostage. Use me as a human shield. How cliché...?_

"That'ss more like it!"

With a sudden movement he shoved her, wheeling her out of the way as he sprang forward, directly _into_ the line of security guards. Gunfire rang out, but the shots went wild, and suddenly he was amongst them, throwing punches and kicks and using that tail as a fifth limb, slapping one guard across the face and yanking the legs out from underneath another. He leapt backwards, grasping onto a column without even facing it, and Chiyo watched as the guards attempted to open fire again. He slithered up the column and around it as easily as a serpent might, then again plunged amongst them, kicking and laughing.

_It was all just fun to him_, she realized, as he knocked down another guard.

"Oops, can't forget my prize," he said, smashing the case and grabbing the Dead Sea Scrolls out of them, rolling them up into a single scroll in his tight little fist.

"Put those down!" shouted one of the guards. His partner backed him up.

Copperhead struck lightning fast, his tail swatting aside security guards like they were bowling pins, knocking the two over. A third he backhanded out of the way, sending them crashing into Chiyo. Her wheelchair was knocked over, and she spilled out, crashing hard to the ground. Worse, the ankh slid free of the covers and bounced on the ground, almost directly at the feet of Copperhead. Finished with his foes, he glanced down at the trinket by his boot with a surprised look.

"Well well well, what have we here?" hissed the thief, crouching down to pick up the artifact. "Ssneaky girl."

"No, you can't!" she stretched out a hand to try and stop him, but she couldn't quite reach.

"Watch me," he hissed.

Crouching low, he sprang up on powerful legs to the far wall, and slithered up along it, clutching his prizes in hand. Both the Dead Sea Scrolls and the ankh were in his possession, and it seemed as if no one could stop him.

_Like hell_, she thought.

Chiyo growled and crawled on the ground, lifting herself up on her arms to take a quick look around. No one was watching, all the guards were unconscious, as was her father. _Please let him just be unconscious_, she thought. Everybody else had already fled outside. She unzipped her coat so fiercely she nearly ripped off the slider...

* * *

><p>Copperhead growled as he loped his way up the wall, slithering around another column and unsnapping the top of the window hatch, sliding it open. In seconds he was out of the museum and climbing up the side of the roof. He clambered along the sheer wall as easily as if it was horizontal instead of vertical, making his way around to the front of the museum. By this point, Copperhead figured there'd have to be reporters around, photographers, hell he'd settle for some amateurs with camera phones. A quick snapshot image of the mysterious snake thief for the papers then he could be on his way.<p>

Two gunshots rang out, and he ducked his head out of the way. Some of the police had arrived, and were setting up a barricade at the front of the museum. They'd just opened fire on him. Normally Copperhead could tear right through them, but there were more coming, and one of them might get lucky and blow his head off.

He bid a hasty retreat, springing from wall to wall, hanging vertically as easily as if it was a flat surface. _Okay, fine, he'd circle around the back instead, make his way for the sewers..._

"Don't go yet, the party's just starting!"

"Huh?!"

Copperhead's head snapped up seconds before a winged girl slammed full force into his gut, knocking him off the side of the building and through one of the large glass windows of the museum. The two of them went crashing down in the middle of an exhibit on medieval weaponry. Hawkgirl threw herself clear but Copperhead crashed into a suit of armor, knocking it down and scattering pieces of it everywhere.

He slithered to his feet in seconds, hissing angrily at the superwoman who'd dared to stop him.

"Get out of my way, birdgirl!"

"Not happening," she retorted, fists on her hips, trying to look intimidating. Somewhat ruined by the fact that she was almost a full head shorter than her prey and without her customary mace.

"Your funeral," he hissed, and lunged at her. She dodged out of the way, but by a very thin margin. His clawed fingertips scratched against the metallic feathers of her wings as she swept aside and in a wide arc. He was dangerous. And unlike the majority of foes she'd faced up until this point, Chiyo had absolutely no idea if she could beat Copperhead.

She should've just left him to the police. Let them do what they were good at. Arrest criminals.

But this was different. Just like those crazy Light of the Divine who'd threatened Toji and his friends, Copperhead had hurt her father. It was more important than stopping a thug because of some superhero civic duty.

It was personal.

Chiyo frowned darkly and lifted up her fists, bracers in place and boosting her strength. But more than simple power she felt a furious, righteous anger inside of her. One demanding an outlet. She gave it one.

"RaaaaAAH!"

Hawkgirl surged forward, fist upraised to smack Copperhead upside his ugly head.

Unfortunately, Hawkgirl was inexperienced in actual hand-to-hand fighting, having relied on her mace and her wings when she had virtually no idea how to throw a punch. Copperhead, on the other hand, was a seasoned brawler, and saw her move long before she'd made it. He dodged with unnatural fluidity, ducking under her thrown punch and inside of her guard, slugging her fiercely in the gut. And for all her enhanced strength, Chiyo was still only a twelve (nearly thirteen) year old girl. The blow knocked the wind clean out of her lungs.

Her concentration definitely disrupted, her wings curled up, and gravity took hold as the snake's punch followed through, sending her crashing to the ground, skidding across the linoleum floor until she hit another exhibit.

"That the besst you got?" he said, cracking his knuckles. And then his neck. The later with an unnaturally long number of cracks and pops.

She coughed, trying to catch her breath. "Just getting warmed up!" she replied with as much bravado as she could muster, willing herself back to hovering. Her eyes cast about through the slits in her mask, hoping to find a weapon. She may not have her mace, but that didn't mean...

_Aha!_

She dove to the side and grabbed up an axe resting out of its case nearby, feeling the welcome weight in her hands. It wasn't as smooth or light as the mace currently resting back home, but it was a weapon, and she welcomed it. Still, nothing said she had to fight fair.

"Batter up!" she shouted, swinging her arms up as if intending to cut him in two. He crouched, prepared to lunge out of the way, but she'd anticipated that and spun, sending a flurry of sharp metallic feathers from her wings directly at Copperhead, aiming only enough to ensure she didn't puncture a vital organ.

Back again, with unnatural, inhuman fluidity, Copperhead twisted and dodged, arching his back until she thought his spine would break, then performing a flawless handstand and backflip up and over an ancient chariot. Most of the feathers imbedded into the artifact instead of their intended target.

"Oh is that the way you wanna play?" he growled, head swerving left and right. He grabbed up a nearby spear, kicked it up with his foot, caught it, and gave it a casual heft, testing its weight.

"Let'ss play!"

He leapt upwards, and she swooped around, their weapons colliding with enough force to send sparks flying. Blades clashed in the air, almost singing. Both combatants pressed every bit of their superhuman might into their duel. Every near miss smashed through another exhibit or display case, glass rained down on the floor everywhere as both sought to gain the upper hand. Wings and tail were of no use as sharp metal was swung through the air.

Copperhead parried a blow meant to whack him upside his cowl (Hawkgirl was trying not to cut him into too many pieces) and leapt backwards, executing a flawless backflip to land to his feet. Hefting his borrowde weapon, he threw it. The spear sailed through the air, and Hawkgirl narrowly avoided being skewered as it passed by her bared midsection and under her left wing, imbedding itself in the far wall.

She turned to follow its flight. A costly mistake. When she looked back, Copperhead was gone.

"Damn," she cursed.

Her wings flapped as Hawkgirl followed after Copperhead, weaving underneath displays and banners. She exited the medieval armor section and found herself in a room displaying Egyptian tablets.

"Where are you?" she whispered, eyes darting through the slits in her mask, searching for her prey. "Where'd you go?"

"Right behind you!"

She didn't have a chance to react as a pair of arms snaked around her and under her wings, trapping her arms at her sides and tightening. She gave a muffled scream as Copperhead slapped one hand over her mouth, then tightened his grip. His arms, unnaturally flexible and superhumanly strong, began to crush all the air out of her lungs like a constrictor.

"Thiss iss what you get for sstanding in my-"

She didn't let him finish, Hawkgirl spread out her wings and launched herself skywards and backwards, using a move she'd only seen in cartoons before. Fortunately, it worked, and she slammed against the far wall, Copperhead cushioning her body while his own took the brunt of the impact. His grip loosened, and she slipped out of it, climbing higher into the air as he dropped back down to the ground.

She greedily sucked in a breath of fresh air, coughing.

He, on the other hand, didn't even look winded, though he clutched his right shoulder from where he'd struck the wall with his free hand.

"Well it'ss been fun, bird brat, but I gotss a delivery to make," he said, shaking the scrolls and ankh clutched in his hand. "Sso if you'll excusse me."

He started off again, and she cast her eyes about desperate for some means to stop him. She couldn't attack him again, he was too dangerous in close combat. And he kept dodging her feathers, so she needed something bigger to do it. A plan sprung to mind. This time she aimed for a nearby banner display, hanging from the ceiling over an archway. The slithery thief ran through the archway, and with two well placed feathers, she sent the banner crumbling down atop of Copperhead, obscuring his view and obstructing his movements.

"That's not yours to take!" she shouted, snatching the ankh and scrolls from his hands. He ripped the banner in half, hissing angrily.

"Fine, keep them!" he retorted, swinging around his tail to smack her full in her midsection, sending her flying through the air to smack hard against the far wall. Her skull impacted against the ankh as she fell to the floor.

**_Flash._**

Chiyo gasped in intense pain, exploded behind her eyelids. She stumbled to the ground, unable to maintain her hovering. Unable to stand. She couldn't even think straight, that blow to her head had left her thoroughly shaken. So much so she couldn't even see straight as Copperhead non-challantly strolled up and plucked up the ankh with his tail, tossing it into his hand.

"Now then, take it from a professssional little bird. Don't ssteal from ssomeone you can't outrun, outfight, or outssmart. Learned that from a Cat. And I'd ssay I've got you beat in all three of those areass. Hassta la vissta," he hissed, sticking out his tongue at her in juvenile fashion, then springing up along the wall and out the gaping window, making his escape as planned.

Chiyo struggled to go after him, but her head hurt so badly, she couldn't focus enough to fly. Her metallic wings gave a sort of half flutter, then collapsed around her. She couldn't catch up to Copperhead now, not with the head start he'd gotten. As it was, Chiyo barely had enough time to retract her wings and hide them under her coat, after first making her way back to her wheelchair. By then her father was starting to stir and the medics had arrived, two of which helped her up and back into her wheelchair, which was righted.

"Are you alright miss?"

"F-fine," Chiyo said, letting her voice tremble in what she hoped was a convincing manner. "What about dad? Is he okay?"

"He's going to be fine," they assured her. "Let's get you both to the hospital." They started to wheel her out, right past the broken displays and ruined relics that her fight had made. She winced as she realized she may've caused more damage in the museum with her fight than Copperhead's one small theft. And she hadn't even prevented that.

"I'm _really_ bad at this," she muttered, hanging her head shamefully as the police and medics wheeled her out, helped her into the back of a police car that was following the ambulance her father was in. They were both headed towards the hospital.

* * *

><p>They kept reassuring her that her father wasn't in any real danger, but they wouldn't let her see him. Instead, Chiyo was rolled into another room to be examined by a nurse.<p>

An hour passed, and she felt weak, the stress of the day coupled with her battered body making it dangerously hard to stay conscious. Plus her head still ached. She think she'd read somewhere once about something called a concussion, but she wasn't sure what it was or if she had it. Fortunately, the medic couldn't find anything unduly wrong, and so prescribed her some over the countertop painkillers.

Toji arrived shortly after her diagnosis was finished, sprinting across the lobby and causing more than a few nurses to yell at him not to run, as he bolted down the hallway to where his father was recuperating.

"Dad?!"

"I'm here, Toji. Hey, it's okay... everyone's fine. Me and Chiyo both."

She gave a lazy wave. "Hey bro."

"Just had a rather bad trip to the museum," their father explained. "Doctors want to make sure my leg is okay before they discharge me."

"Are you sure? I mean, how can they know?"

"Son, I'm fine. Really," he said, attempting to wave off Toji's concerns.

"Sure you'll be alright?"

"Of course I'll be alright... we Suzuhara's are made of sterner stuff than..." he paused as a thought occurred to him, then gave a laugh. "Ha... guess this makes a complete set."

Chiyo was puzzled. "Dad?"

"All three of the Suzuhara's have escaped deaths clutches now!"

The two children flung themselves into his arms as the small family laughed.

* * *

><p>Ichirou Suzuhara was released later that day, albeit on a cane in case his injury should flare up again. He was told to keep off the leg for another week, but there was no sign of any remaining toxins in his bloodstream. A clean bill of health. Chiyo and Toji stayed with him the entire time, and accompanied him back to their apartment in the same cab.<p>

"I say we order out tonight," said their father as he settled onto the sofa. "What do you kids say, pizza or Chinese?"

"Pizza!" exclaimed Toji.

"Chinese!" Chiyo said at the same moment.

They glanced at one another. Then both burst out laughing.

"Pizzinese it is!" laughed Chiyo.

"I'll get the phone, we have those two on speed dial, right?" Toji asked, not looking where he was going. And tripped, bumping over one of the kitchen chairs. It clattered on the floor with an ominous bang. Chiyo winced, pressing a finger to her aching temple. It still stung from where she'd fallen at the museum. Her father spotted the grimace cross her face.

"You alright, Chiyo?"

"I'm fine dad, just... got a big headache," she murmured, pressing a hand to her temples. "You know, I think I'll skip dinner, maybe go take a nap, okay?"

"Alright. I'll come check on you in a little bit."

"Thanks dad," she said.

"Sweet dreams, Chiyo-chan."

She smiled, though it was closer to a grimace, as she rolled into her bedroom and lay down on the bed, falling asleep almost instantly, her mind drifting into a dark, dreamless void.

* * *

><p><strong><em>Tha..ga0... Lo..S...ate 9...ZX6..-58...7.D.<em>**

**_.. ..t Ch..yer..ol Rep...X... ... ... .0..._**

**_Nt...etal P...ert..s . 0e...Atmosp..re B...tha..e_**

**_L..e .X..s Fai... ... ... U..ble to ...me_**

**_X0kn..n A..en F1rm C1...if0.d 1s ..xels... . .._**

**_W0..hi..ed a..GXds. ..X. ...0... . no..gy as Mx1ic_**

**_Er..r Sy..emXCo..upte.. ... ...rXu..ed.. .._**

**_G0Xda..an.. ...to. Ic...ltu .r..r D..age ...Er..r_**

**_Er01r ..rXr..rro...rr.. Error ..ro...r0or E..or .rr1r_**

* * *

><p>Two days passed, during which Chiyo spent most of the time in bed, nursing a wicked headache and feeling decidedly unwell. She didn't sleep well at all that first night. Kept having odd dreams which she couldn't remember upon waking. Thankfully, by Tuesday morning she was almost right as rain again, and didn't have to have Toji bringing her breakfast in bed anymore, feeling like a useless invalid. Their father had tried to get some time off from work to help, but he was too invaluable to NERV to be let go whenever he pleased, so unfortunately, she was all on her own most of Monday and a lot of Tuesday.<p>

Just past three, however, he came strolling in.

She was sitting on the couch, sketching idly on a board and trying to kill time. Chiyo'd been considering a jaunt as Hawkgirl but hadn't really felt in the mood ever since her encounter with Copperhead. She'd never fought anyone remotely as tough as that before, and the experience had scared her a little.

It showed, her sketches were decidedly more wobbly than normal. She'd already scribbled over half, torn them out, crumpled them up, and tossed them in the garbage.

Her father's return home was a welcome distraction. "Hey dad. Back already?"

"I don't have much time, I have to get back to work in an hour or so, but I've good news."

"Good news?" she asked.

"I know it's taken a long while, but we finally found you that tutor we were talking about. The applicant I interviewed is perfect for the job," he said.

_Joy_, thought Chiyo, rolling her eyes. Then she plastered a fake smile on her face as she turned back around to meet her father's gaze. "Sounds good. I don't want to get too far behind."

"Anyway," her father explained, "He's coming by in an hour for an initial meet and greet, and after that'll drop by every afternoon after school. I even managed to cut a deal with the landlords, and they said they'll set up the unused dayroom on this floor for the two of you. So you can get out of the apartment a little more but don't have to go so far." Chiyo smiled at that, well imagining the sort of hassle it must've been to arrange.

"I won't have to worry about that much longer," she replied, thumping her armrests for emphasis.

"Another reason this tutor works afternoons. You'll still have the mornings to yourself. After the surgery you'll probably need to get back on your feet... er... so to speak."

She laughed at that. It was true, physical therapy was being arranged by the hospital following her upcoming surgery, and between that and tutoring she'd be having much less time to play superhero. But there was nothing she could do about that right now. Besides, after her encounter with that snake Copperhead, Chiyo suspected she'd earned a little peace and quiet. No more surprises, no more dangerous encounters with supervillains, thugs, or cultists.

The trip down the hallway was quick, as her father had said, Chiyo was less than a stone's throw away, yet afforded a measure of privacy and peace as well as a measure of security. Clearly her father did not trust this tutor enough just yet to let them have free reign of their home, even if they were now allowed in the apartment complex.

The dayroom was simple and spartan. There was a TV in the corner, but it looked so old fashioned and dust-covered it was probably broken. A long couch and a few folding chairs were the only other furniture, though the far end of the room boasted a dartboard. All in all it felt... cozy almost. Peaceful.

Her father's phone began to ring, and Chiyo glanced up curiously, half-expecting it to be her tutor saying he'd arrived.

"Look I don't... can you just call me back in... alright, alright," he said, then placed a hand over the phone. "I gotta get something off my laptop for a co-worker. Be back in a minute, okay?"

"Sure!" she replied, leaning back in her chair.

He slipped out of the room, leaving her be, and she idly hummed to herself, waiting for the tutor to arrive so they could get their meet-and-greet over with as soon as possible.

"Such a devoted father, taking care of his little girl..."

Chiyo spun her head around as fast as she could, to find a boy Toji's age standing there, smiling.

"Heartwarming, really," he clarified with a smile.

The first thing she noticed was his hair, which was abnormally faded in color. It looked like the sort of almost white strands that grandfather Suzuhara had, but the owner of this hair was clearly in his early teens.

He was also very pale, even more so than most children his age, and coupled with his faded hair he looked like a ghost. Even his eyes were abnormal, a reddish hue not normally found amongst the seas of green, blues and browns. The uniform of Toji's school, a crisp white shirt and black slacks, fit him poorly, hanging loosely on his thin frame, but it did not seem to bother him in the least.

She blinked, glancing back at the doorway, then back at the boy. He hadn't... had he? He couldn't have gotten in, there was only the one door (well, and the window, but they were twenty-five stories up) so how could he have possibly entered without her seeing him?

"Hello?" she managed to say at last. "Nice to meet you."

He gave a polite bow, but that smile seemed to be plastered to his face as he did so, making the gesture look hollow. Even mocking. That feature of his, that lazy half-grin, was his most prominent feature apart from his albino features, and a line of reading came back to her, reminding her of a story she'd been read as a child. And one particular name:

Cheshire cat.

He smiled like a Cheshire cat.

Then Chiyo remembered. She remembered the flicker back at the museum. It had been this boy, standing there. Watching here. He'd vanished in an instant, but she was positive this boy was him. He'd seen her. But what else had he seen?

Ignorant of her inner musings, he smiled, then extended his hand to shake.

"Hello Chiyo. I'm Kaworu. Kaworu Nagisa."

* * *

><p><strong>Next Time!<br>**"For now, observe this Hawkgirl. Learn about her connection to Ikari, and discover her secret identity if you can. Do not engage her, we will determine her fate when you have brought this information to us."

The shadowy figure dipped into a polite bow, and stepped backwards, fading into nothingness before their very eyes. It would get things done, one way or another. Of that there was no doubt.

A beeping sound came from one of the monoliths, the one bearing the emblem of '07'

"What is it?" asked SEELE-01.

"The Eighth Angel has begun its descent. As was ordained."

* * *

><p><strong>Omake – OCs and X-Overs<br>**"sSnakess eat birdss for breakfasst!"

A random museum guard stuck his head out. "Actually according to most naturalists, its hawks that prey on reptiles on a regular basis."

"Quiet you!" said Copperhead, knocking the guard out. "Main characterss talking!"

"Since when do you qualify as main?" asked Hawkgirl, hands on her hips. "You're barely a third-stringer in DC."

"You're one to talk, Miss OC Stand-In!"

She gasped at his low blow, then rolled up some imaginary sleeves.

Twenty minutes later Copperhead was little more than a greasy smear on the pavement.

"Now, what've we learned?" she asked, her foot buried in his back.

"To be accepting of other peoples interpretations of entertaining material, to be polite when offering criticism, and if I don't like something, no one is forcing you to read it," he rattled off.

"Good. Now you go to jail."

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes:<br>**The Copperhead of my story is something of an amalgam of various snake-themed supervillains from the DC-verses myriad incarnations, only about 66% of which were originally called Copperhead. But since he was indeed a third-rate supervillain from DC, I doubt anyone cared.


	5. Shadow of the Hawk

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Evangelion or DC Comics. Please don't sue me, I'm poor.

**Summary: **The loss of her ability to walk devastated Chiyo Suzuhara, the younger sister of Toji. That is, until she came across a discovery of her mother's. One that lifted her up into the clouds.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Five: <strong>**Shadow of the Hawk**

She didn't take his hand.

It wasn't very polite, but something about this boy unnerved her, despite his politeness. Something about him seemed off, and Chiyo was on her guard.

Fortunately, he didn't seem offended, and his hand eventually dropped back down to his side.

"So you're my tutor then?"

The boy, Kaworu, nodded. "History, mathematics, physics, literature... the many and varied sciences and philosophies that mankind has managed to make in such a wonderfully short period of time."

She raised an eyebrow at his odd choice of words. Most people would've settled for a simple 'yes'.

"I recognize that uniform, do you go to school with my brother?"

"Mm?" he seemed surprised by her question. "Oh, no, not yet. I haven't been assigned there yet."

That didn't make any sense, but she decided not to press the matter. After all, the 'uniform' was largely just shirt and slacks, anyone could have worn it. From what Toji said, Shinji even did so outside of class.

"So where are you from?"

To that, he didn't reply, just continued to smile in that infuriating manner, and turned away as if he hadn't even heard her question.

"I said-"

"I heard you," the pale boy replied smoothly.

"So why didn't you answer? It's very rude not to answer someone when they ask you a question."

"Maybe I can't share the answer with you yet," he said cryptically. His smile widened as a thought seemed to come to him. "Besides, aren't I the tutor? Don't I get to ask you the questions?"

She smirked and folded her arms, feeling up to the challenge. "Go ahead then. Ask me anything."

"Who are you, Chiyo Suzuhara?"

The petite girl paused. It wasn't a question she'd been expecting. And it wasn't so much the question as the inflection he'd used. Like he was asking her for some deep, fundamental truth.

_Or he knows..._

She shook her head, knowing that was impossible. "What do you mean?"

But Kaworu just smiled. "It's all right if you don't have an answer yet. Most don't know who they truly are when they're only twelve."

She bristled at his comment about her age. "I'm nearly thirteen."

"Of course, my apologies. But allow me to give you your first lesson. Education is about more than learning about the world, it's about learning who you truly are. So when our time together is complete, I'm going to ask you that question again. Think on it a little, if you will. And we'll see what sort of answer you come up with."

He strolled around the room as he spoke, flickering in and out of her sight as she tilted her head and shifted in her chair, trying to keep him in her field of vision. He paused briefly by the piano someone had moved into the day room a while back, his fingers dancing over the keys.

"Hmmm, not bad," he remarked.

"You teach music, too?" Chiyo asked skeptically.

His smile widened at that, like she'd just told some joke. "Not exactly."

Weirder and weirder. That darn Cheshire smile was really starting to unnerve her, and Chiyo did not like the thought of being Alice.

"So do you just play recreationally?" she asked, cutting to the chase.

"You're very direct, Chiyo. You see a single path between you and your objective, and you walk along it as quickly as you can to get there. No pretense or false fronts. It's very refreshing, to be honest."

"I don't like to dilly-dally," she said. "After all, life's short, right?"

He gave a soft laugh at that, amused by her response.

"Well, Chiyo-san... I have places to be and things to do, so forgive me for cutting this introductory lesson short. But I can tell already you're going to be very interesting to teach."

She nodded gently, not sure if he was being sincere or just spouting a common phrase. She leaned over to grab her books, placing them in her lap.

"I'll be seeing you around... Chiyo Suzuhara."

When she looked back up...he was gone. He'd simply vanished in an eye blink.

The door opened half a second later, and in stepped her father, smiling. She might've jumped at his sudden return if not for the fact that she was still wheelchair-bound.

"Sorry about the delay, my laptop's battery died. Everything all right?"

"S-sure," she said, still staring at the spot where Kaworu had disappeared. Then, suddenly feeling guilty and needing to cover it up, she grabbed up the books off the table, settling them onto her lap. "Uh, everything's fine. We can head back now dad."

"So the...tutor came and went already?" he asked.

She nodded. "Yes, he...he did."

"Oh..." was all her father said, puzzled. "So what do you think of him?"

"I...guess he'll do," she replied, noncommittal.

She took a long look at the window as she left the room, wheeled out by her father. Something felt very strange. Very wrong, even.

* * *

><p>Strictly speaking, using the secret tunnels to slip into NERV wasn't necessary. But it was fun, and that was one of Copperhead's finer motivations. Plus, Commander Ikari valued discretion in this matter. So he'd disabled the security protocols and his thief had snaked his way through the tunnels and to the office, where he'd plunked down his prize on the table right before the Commander.<p>

"It's damaged," Gendo remarked, running a hand along the crack in the gem. It sparked and crackled. He ignored the scrolls entirely for the moment.

Copperhead shrugged. "The Bird Brat did it," he said, grimacing as the motion re-awakened the dull pain in his left arm. His shoulder still ached from where that mace had hit him.

A single eyebrow raised was the only betrayal of Gendo's inner thoughts. "Hawkgirl?"

"Yeah that'ss the one," the snake replied, sliding into the seat across from Gendo with a casual slither. "Sstill, I got you the trinket, didn't I? Copperhead alwayss deliverss."

_He has no idea_, Gendo realized. _To him it's just some cheap toy a rich man wants in his personal collection but can't purchase legally. He has no idea what's been lost, what information had been destroyed_...

His gloved hands tightened, but then relaxed. Copperhead didn't even notice the subtle display.

Still, it wasn't a total loss. The scrolls had most of the information he needed, though it would take far longer to decipher the non-digital data into meaningful facts. He had ultimately obtained what he needed. It was just not in a convenient form.

"It will take some time to have the funds wired to you," Gendo stated, his voice deathly cold. "NERV is suffering some financial setbacks at the moment thanks to the JSSDF. For now, remain in the city. I may have need of your services again."

"Long asss I get my usual fee, I'm good with that," said the snake, wasting no time in scaling his way out of the office the same way he'd come. Gendo watched him go through his reflective lenses, his expression unreadable until he was alone. Only then did he allowed his carefully controlled mask to slip, and he scowled darkly.

Too many unpredictable factors were cropping up in the Scenario. Granted, when you dealt with such wide-reaching machinations, something unexpected was bound to happen, but he'd dedicated his life to understanding, controlling, and stamping out obstacles. Now it seemed like there was a new one in play. Hawkgirl had been beneath his notice as just another silly little girl in a costume, but now she'd gotten in his way and impeded his work.

He needed to know about her so he could pinpoint the proper way to dispose of her.

* * *

><p>Chiyo Suzuhara had never been so scared in her life. The time she'd been in the shelter during the Third Angel's attack came close, but even that had been a relatively brief moment of terror sandwiched between general dullness and blacking out. This was a mounting stress that felt like it was growing heavier by the minute.<p>

At first, she'd been overjoyed. But as soon as she passed through the archway of the hospital and down the first long corridor, it had started. Her apprehension only got worse when they got in the first elevator and rode it up to the thirtieth floor, where the surgery was going to be conducted.

Toji pushed on her wheelchair, gliding her along for her (hopefully) last trip in it.

"Sure you're ready for this?" he asked.

She felt her heart climb into her throat, but managed to keep her voice steady as she said, "I was born ready." Then, after a moment, she did add: "I wish Dad was here, though."

"I was lucky to get out of school," he replied. "No way they can spare Dad. You heard him the other day, some big new project to work on."

"Yeah yeah, work for NERV, save the world," she muttered. "Is it selfish of me to still want him here, though?"

He ruffled her hair. "Nah, I wish he was here, too. I mean, now I have to deal with you all by myself."

Chiyo laughed at that, and some of the tension dissipated. Replaced by resolve. It was the same sort of feeling she had whenever she donned her costume and mask and became Hawkgirl.

Helping people made her feel good inside. Strong inside. Even more than flying, it was like nothing could hold her down. And she liked it. So yeah, she kept at it, despite the pain, the bruises, the excuses, and then downright lies to her family. She did it because it felt good to be a hero.

And because deep down, she knew that disaster could happen to someone she cared about. Her father, her brother...they'd both come close once already, and things looked like they were going to get worse before they got better.

So she was going to go right back to it once she was out of the surgery, no matter the outcome.

* * *

><p>It was complete bedlam at the International Museum of Tokyo-3. Chaotic didn't even come close to describing it. Per their orders, they'd the police had sealed off the museum and were now combing its interior for evidence. Given the sheer size of the place, they'd estimated it would take at least a week to check everywhere thoroughly, if they had a full complement of officers available. Unfortunately, their numbers were stretched thin; between the brawl in the museum and Light of the Divine raids taking place now in the older part of the city, not much manpower could be spared. Fewer still were watching the perimeter. Almost anyone who was truly inclined could slip right in.<p>

Proving that point, Ryoji Kaji stepped underneath the yellow tape keeping back the horde of curious onlookers and stepped inside the entryway of the museum itself.

"Whoa...they really did a number on this place, didn't they?"

None of the police inspectors paid him the slightest mind as he waltzed in like he owned the place. Most assumed he was another member of the museum staff, and he was prepared to convincingly claim just that, if he was asked. Casually sidestepping over broken artifacts and trinkets he didn't recognize, but which undoubtedly cost a great deal of money, he made his way towards the Egyptian Exhibits. NERV regularly paid to repair the damage after the Evangelions and the Angels fought in the very heart of the city. This would be chump change to them.

Even so, the museum curators and the police were not happy. Both the criminal Copperhead and the vigilante Hawkgirl had escaped, and there was untold damage to the museum's exhibits, many of which were in shambles or irreplaceable. And that barely covered the many injuries amongst the security forces and visiting patrons.

It was only a miracle nobody had been killed.

Eye witness accounts were taken, though they were in short supply, and damage cataloged so those who had been hurt or lost property could be would be compensated. Arrest warrants were issued for the snake-themed super-thief. No one bothered to re-count the number of metal feathers that were claimed as evidence. If they had, they might've noticed three of them were missing.

Kaji hummed a tune as he waltzed out of the museum, hands in his pockets.

* * *

><p>After a brief lecture on possible side-effects and some preventative measures, Chiyo was readied for surgery. Her civilian clothes were exchanged for a white hospital gown, and she was told to wait while they finished preparing the operating room.<p>

Toji had excused himself to go to the little boys room, and so Chiyo was left by herself in the largely empty hallway. As the moments ticked by, she felt the apprehension start to slowly creep up on her again. Feeling a need to put her mind on other things, she reached down to the side of her wheelchair and pulled out some reading material. It was the report Aida had given for the Hawkmen, but it would have to do.

She barely got through the first page when a shadow fell over her, and she glanced up.

"Hello Chiyo-san. How are you today?"

She jerked back in surprise at the sight before her. Instead of her big brother or one of the nurses ready to take her into surgery, it was her tutor Kaworu.

"Well well, fancy running into you here," he said, smiling so wide his eyes vanished.

"Uh... yeah..." she said, unsure of what to think. How the heck did he know she'd be here? Was he following her?

"And what do we have here?" he asked, lightly plucking the report from her hand. "Information on the Hawkmen? Oh my, is Chiyo Suzuhara so very interested in learning more about the winged superwoman?"

"... little. It's a report on a Second Impact Phenomenon."

"Hmmm," he remarked, thumbing over the article. "Interesting topic."

"It's a friend's report," Chiyo explained, feeling self-conscious for some reason. "I was...I mean we were both...curious about the past Hawkmen. O-one of them saved my brother's life, after all."

He flipped to the last page as if he hadn't heard her, showing a clip-out from the Tokyo Tattler with an image of the latest Hawkgirl.

"Hmmm, the youngest of the superwomen of Tokyo-3," he remarked, eyeing the image and glancing up at Chiyo, comparing the two.

"Do you know anything about them?" she asked.

He smiled. "I'm a tutor in human history," he replied in an almost smug tone of voice, handing the report back to her. "Of course I know a little of the superhero population of the planet Earth."

"Prove it," she dared, almost challengingly.

He did not hesitate. "Carter Hall was the first modern day Hawkman, an archaeologist and Egyptologist who discovered the wings and mace and protected the original Midway City. He perished in the Second Impact. Many Hawkwomen and Hawkgirls appeared over the ages are sidekicks, partners, and most frequently, wives of the Hawkmen, but the most well known was Sierra Hall, the wife of Carter Hall. No one knows what happened to her."

She gaped, stunned. A quick glance at the report in front of her confirmed everything he'd said as fact. Or at least as common knowledge easily found on the internet. Still, to recite it from memory alone...

"However," Kaworu went on. "It's not the whole story. What few realize is that Carter and Sierra Hall were in fact actually named Katar and Shayera Hol, and were the reincarnated spirits of an Egyptian Pharaoh and his beloved wife. They were slain by a jealous vizier with a special sort of dagger and, as a result, were cursed to be reincarnated again and again, to love and lose one another lifetime after lifetime. An occurrence which, I might add, is rather unique to the human race. Two souls bound together, constantly seeking one another out, but doing so only would result in tragedy..." he trailed off as his story came to an end, making the last part sound almost... wistful?

But Chiyo scarcely paid attention to his tone. It was his story that stunned her, much more than his earlier rhetoric had. Could that be true? Were all of the Hawkmen and Hawkwomen part of some long-lasting legacy? Had her mother been a part of it? Was _she_, somehow?

"Really?" she asked.

"Maybe," he replied nonchalantly. "It's just a story."

"But is it true?" Chiyo pressed, suddenly hungry for information.

He turned suddenly, his face very close to hers, and Chiyo instinctively flinched away from that crimson gaze. "Why the sudden interest in winged superwomen?" he asked with a knowing smile.

"Uhm, er... no reason," she backpedaled fast. "Just sounded interesting, is all."

He continued to smiled, making a vague 'hrm' sound that conveyed he didn't believe her for one minute.

"Chiyo?" she glanced up as her brother came back around, smiling with instant relief. The sight of him instantly put her at ease again.

"They're ready for you," he explained. A blonde nurse by his side nodded in affirmation.

Chiyo nodded, then glanced back at Kaworu to say good-bye...only to discover he'd vanished. In less than an instant he'd escaped from her sight again.

She blinked._ How does he keep doing that_?

* * *

><p>Distorted voices echoed through the black void, empty save for eight holographic monoliths in the vast darkness. SEELE had called a meeting.<p>

One spot lay empty: the space where Gendo Ikari typically stood as part of the proceedings. This meeting did not concern him. Or rather, it did not include him, for it was _about_ him.

SEELE-01 began, wasting no time once the others had arrived. "Commander Ikari is growing bolder in his defiance of us," he said. "He has deliberately withheld information from us vital to the Scenario. Also, he and Sub Commander Fuyukutsi have recently made a trip to the Moon and discovered the prototype new Eva."

Another of the monoliths spoke up. "We also have information that the Dead Sea Scrolls on display were stolen in the museum battle. They are the only missing objects, though obviously there are extensive damages to sort through."

"Relics are of no consequence," another of the pillars said dismissively. "The Scrolls are the only item of importance."

SEELE-01 cut directly to the heart of the matter.

"This is no coincidence. I believe Commander Ikari hired this Hawkgirl to do his dirty work for him, steal the Scrolls, and bring them back to him. To obtain greater knowledge on the Scenario we have worked our entire lives see come to fruition."

"With such knowledge, he could alter everything. This will upset the Scenario."

"You have proof of this?"

"All the facts would seem to add up. The theft of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the time when Hawkgirl was seen in the vicinity. Now they are missing and so is she. Of course, the Commander of NERV will obviously never admit to having obtained them."

"No, indeed not," intoned SEELE-05. "Ikari is the only one who knows the value of the Scrolls besides those here. He has the resources to hire someone of her caliber."

SEELE-03 seemed intent to argue that point. "He himself suggested Hawkgirl was no threat."

"A ploy to throw us off his scent."

"Not to disagree," interjected SEELE-07, though his tone of voice suggested his meaning was the opposite to his words. "But Commander Ikari and NERV are still needed. We cannot simply eliminate them, or everything we have worked for will be for naught."

"We cannot ignore this! Ikari must answer for his actions!"

"Then it appears our plans have shifted, gentlemen. We must eliminate this variable before it threatens the Scenario further," stated SEELE-01.

"How are we to do that? If Ikari is protecting her..."

"Ikari's reach has limits," replied SEELE-01 coldly. "And we have access to resources he does not."

The monoliths did not move, the room's settings were not adjusted, but it seemed to all of them as if it had become that much darker. Shadows coalesced all around, and though none of them were actually present in the room, they all felt it. An ominous chill running down their spines.

"This agent will find no such obstacle," Keel said coldly.

SEELE's influence was vast, far more so than Gendo Ikari could realize or comprehend. Where he contented himself with hiring mercenaries and supervillains to do his dirty work under the table, using that blonde bimbo of a scientist and the rabid dog Chiron to handle the darker nature of his job, he was woefully inadequate compared to the shadowy cabal that was SEELE. They could topple governments with six words, and more importantly, had access to an element Ikari had virtually no understanding of or love for.

Magic.

A little known fact about Lorenz Keel was that in addition to being kept alive by cybernetic enhancements, he was also a practicing sorcerer. He would be useless in an actual fight, as he mostly knew only ritual magic, but with enough time and research, as well as the undying loyalty of his fellow SEELE followers and their resources, he could do almost anything. It was how they kept the some of their supernatural agents in line. And it was how they had created this instrument of their will.

A being of shadowy substance, able to enter any hidden stronghold, find any terrible secret. Formed of darkness and malicious thoughts. Bound to their will..._his_ will...as closely as his own beating heart.

They called him simply the Shadow.

"Gentlemen, to what do I owe the most delightful pleasure?" intoned the Shadow. It's voice was masculine, slithery as a snake, and almost gleefully eager.

"We have an important mission for you, Shadow. Events are taking place that require intervention before they spiral out of control. The enemies of SEELE, of mankind's future, are moving against us."

"And my mission?" the Shadow asked slickly. If it had facial features, it would doubtlessly be grinning.

The Shadow took a perverse sort of joy in inflicting harm on others. Considering it had been created from the collective wills of SEELE, this had rather unsettling implications regarding their mindset. One that Chairman Keel pointedly ignored. As long as the Shadow did as he was told, his enthusiasm was irrelevant. SEELE did not micro-manage.

"For now, observe this Hawkgirl. Learn about her connection to Ikari, and discover her secret identity if you can. Do not engage her, we will determine her fate when you have brought this information to us."

The shadowy figure dipped into a mockingly polite bow, and stepped backwards, fading into nothingness before their very eyes. It would get things done, one way or another. Of that, there was no doubt.

A beeping sound came from one of the monoliths, the one bearing the emblem of '07'

"What is it?" asked SEELE-01, irritated at the interruption.

"The Eighth Angel has begun its descent. As was ordained."

"Excellent," he replied. "All is happening as scheduled. Gentlemen I believe that will be all, I have other matters to attend to. We will meet again at the usual time."

One by one the monoliths winked out, and only darkness remained.

* * *

><p>Elsewhere, at the hospital, Chiyo was deep in surgery. Doctors moved back and forth as they worked to restore her mobility in this extremely delicate, experimental procedure. Though everything seemed to be going well, tensions were high.<p>

And then the alarms started.

"Shut those off!" yelled the head surgeon, already deep in the procedure. He couldn't afford a distraction now. Finally, the blasted sirens were silenced. He didn't look up as he injected the LCL mixture directly into Chiyo's lower spine, stimulating the growth of healthy nerve cells along her vertebrae. One of his assistants mopped his brow, heavy with sweat.

A blonde nurse came in moments later. "Sir? Sir!"

"What is it?!" he growled, keeping his hands steady, not even looking up at her.

"It's an Angel sighting, sir. NERV just gave the order to evacuate."

"We can't evacuate now! She's too deeply immersed, one wrong move at this point and she'll die!"

"Sir, they gave the order for us to evacuate the ENTIRE CITY! We have to go, NOW!"

"No," he replied firmly. "I won't abandon my patient. Keep her heart rate steady," he ordered one of his other assistants, who sent a low-level electric pulse through Chiyo's body, giving her a heart massage. Her readings steadied.

"Can't we...prep her for mobilization?" asked one of the nurses. "There should be VTOLs on the roof for other patients, she can..."

"No," said the head nurse, pointedly ignoring everyone but her patient. "This girl cannot be moved. Her entire body is saturated now. We must finish this procedure here and now, or she'll be worse than permanently crippled. In all likelihood, she'll die. Not on my watch."

The head surgeon, glancing up at his colleagues. "I need one volunteer to stay behind and help me," he said. "Everyone else can evacuate."

The assistants and nurses glances amongst one another, gauging one another's reactions even as they continued to focus on saving the young girl's life. One life against theirs.

Not a single nurse or doctor left the operating room. The Hippocratic Oath won through. The head surgeon smiled behind his mask.

"Good. Start the second phase," he instructed. "Add in the five cc's of adrenaline and prepare for a bio-electric pulse. Keep things within tolerance levels."

"Aye, sir!" they chorused.

* * *

><p>Toji had received the order to evacuate, too, but he had flat out refused. There was no way in hell he was leaving his little sister's side. If she was staying, he was too. It was a miracle he hadn't burst into the operating room to remain closer to her. At least he recognized that the surgeons needed to do their work.<p>

So he was left to pace back and forth in the long hallway. He shouldn't be worried, he told himself. Shinji and the other Evangelion pilots had a record of 7-0 against the Angels. No reason to think this would turn out any differently. Even so, he was only getting more nervous the longer this dragged out. When the sky started to darken, he felt his breath catch, and he peered nervously out the window and up into the sky. The alarms were still wailing in the background. Toji bit on his lip as he gazed out the window, watching the glowing Angel descend down upon the city like Death itself.

"Shinji," he whispered, like a prayer.

High up on the rooftop, another watched the otherworldly being falling down towards them with a faint smile. Kaworu Nagisa, looking as though he was enjoying the breeze without a care in the world, watched events unfold from high up atop the hospital. He did not fear the outcome, if anything he would have welcomed the city's destruction. But as it stood, he did not think the falling Angel held a chance. Mankind was well defended.

Red eyes flicked eastwards as a purple behemoth of destruction, Eva-01, tore across the landscape, smashing through smaller buildings and vaulting over larger ones. There he was. Shinji Ikari.

They had yet to meet, and yet Kaworu sensed great things were to come from him. A single, seemingly ordinary lilin with... such incredible depths to his heart and soul. A vast sadness, deep as an ocean and as varied as the colors in a rainbow. Even an indefatigable optimism in the human spirit...in almost everyone but himself, it seemed.

Only one other seemed to hold such depths to their soul, and she lay beneath him in the hospital, deep in surgery.

Kaworu's smile widened, even as he watched the purple Evangelion catch his spiritual sibling right out of the sky.

"Things are about to get very interesting," he murmured to no one in particular.

The battle with the Tenth Angel over, all of NERV breathed a collective sigh of relief. For a little while now they could begin to relax while the pilots were retrieved. The paperwork would come later, along with the massive repairs to city, and the endless politics of it all. It was a perfect time for Ryoji Kaji to slip away unseen for a little while.

He checked his pocket, tugging out the strange metal feathers he'd procured from the museum earlier. He had to admit, they did show damn fine craftsmanship. They almost looked like real bird feathers, even though each was sharp enough and hard enough to cut through stone like butter. He ran his thumb over the edge of one, and it drew blood.

Small surprise then, that there were several parties interested in them.

He had a metal feather for each of the sides he was working for. One found its way into the nest of Ritsuko Akagi, the genius scientist in the payroll of Commander Gendo Ikari.

A second was delivered via courier to SEELE.

The third was for yet a third party, an interested group that was working to actively discover and possibly end the scenarios of the other two.

None of the three knew another had such a trinket, but it wouldn't be long before they did. He doubt it would eventually be traced back to him, but he doubted he would get much flak for it. Not for something this small. No, he'd find something truly monumental before it got him killed.

Chiyo's eyes opened slowly. An unfamiliar ceiling greeted her. She felt a little numb all over, and her legs tingled...

_Tingled?!_

She sat up in the bed, hoping against hope, and hesitantly commander her right leg to flex, just like it had done a million times before the horrific accident had left her crippled.

Her right leg flexed. So did her left. Her toes curled at her command, then relaxed.

Her mouth opened wide as shock, joy, and myriad other emotions flitted across her brain. Both of her legs felt terribly sore, like she'd run a marathon, but she didn't care. She could feel them, she could move them, she could... walk? There was a pair of straps laying across her ankles and knees holding them down, no doubt also to remind her to not to get off the bed. The doctors had said something about taking it slow, after all.

For now she was awed enough by the joy of wiggling her toes. Who would have guessed something so simple could bring such pleasure?

Unable to hold herself back, she undid the straps binding her to the bed, throwing her legs over the side of it. They felt heavy, and for a moment she hesitated. But then her anxiety gave way, fading to resolve, and she very, very gingerly lowered her feet onto the floor.

Chiyo gasped, it was ice cold. The linoleum felt freezing. But then her gasp gave way to a weak laugh. She could feel the cold. With her feet. And she was standing again! True, her legs felt like rubber and she was leaning heavily against the bed for support, but she was standing again!

The door to the hospital room opened, and in stepped her big brother Toji, followed by their grandfather Hisao, the former carrying a bouquet of flowers. Probably a gift from the school. She felt embarrassed at being caught like this, already trying to stand when she'd clearly been told not to.

"Chiyo, hey, Dad finally made it!"

Their father strolled into the room, breaking out into a wide smile as he took in the sight before him. His crippled daughter was whole again. Unable to rein in her emotions, Chiyo threw herself at her father, crying tears of joy and soaking his jacket, but unable to bring herself to care.

* * *

><p><strong>Next Time!<br>**Chiyo's flight took her higher than she usually soared, above the very skyscrapers of Tokyo-3, in an effort to find out where the Angel was coming from. It brought her into a patch of clouds, however, and she momentarily lost sight of the ground. Dipping down lower, she arrived just in time to see the fight stretched out below her.

She spotted the purple Eva easily, and in front of it were a line of tanks, already opening fire. She turned her head and spread out her wings to hover in place a moment, wanting a good look at her target.

Her eyes widened in shock behind the mask of Hawkgirl as she beheld it.

* * *

><p><strong>Omake – The Most Common Superpower<br>**The Author burst into the studio, waving his arms like a drunken maniac. "I have it!" he shouted.

Chiyo wrinkled her nose. "Author, are you drunk?"

"Don't interrupt me! I have the answer! I know the secret behind the Superwomen of Eva franchise! I know how to make you a STAR!"

She looked up, interested.

"Fan service!"

Her interest dropped like a stone. "Fan service?"

"Yes! Haven't you read the latest?!" he tossed down copies of _**Dark Lady of Tokyo-3**_ and _**Ultimate Rush**_. All the Superwomen are BABES! Hot babes! In awkward yet steamy situations with Shinji, their love interest!

Chiyo wasn't convinced. "Well that's fine for them, they're at least teenagers! I haven't developed yet," she whines, gesturing to her still flat chest.

Author grinned. "Oh, I took care of that. Get 'er, boys!"

Faceless agents grabbed Chiyo and threw her into an ominous looking machine.

"With the power of pure science, we will MAKE you sexy! Muwahahahahah!"

Author threw an ominous looking switch, lightning flashed, and science-y things did science-y things in the background. Then the machine opened up. Steam drifted out, as something larger, older, and definitely curvier than the original Chiyo began to emerge from the shadows.

"Now the reviews are mine! MINE! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes:<br>**Originally, to facilitate the exposition of the story, the idea was to use Batgirl as Chiyo's ally/mentor whose awesomely cool Bat computer could help explain AT Fields, Angels, and Nth metal. Kaworu was substituted, however, when I figured it would help more closely tie Chiyo to the Eva elements of the story without overwhelming the use of DC elements. Plus, it's been done before with Mana.

Kaworu also presented some unique opportunities as a mentor/ally to the Chiyo Hawkgirl.

Regarding Rebuild 3.0 and the revelations contained therein, I had many an argument with myself over whether or not to proceed, start afresh, make modifications, or what have you. In the end, I'll take what I like and press on with things as they are now. I named her before she became Sakura, and for good reason. Time will tell if this story is ultimately scrapped in favor of something else entirely.


	6. Echoes of the Past

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Evangelion or DC Comics. Please don't sue me, I'm poor.

**Summary: **The loss of her ability to walk devastated Chiyo Suzuhara, the younger sister of Toji. That is, until she came across a discovery of her mother's. One that lifted her up into the clouds.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Six: <strong>**Echoes of the Past**

The new treatment worked like a charm, she was walking again in no time. The Genitronic Rejuvenation Surgery had worked like a charm, her mobility was completely restored, her spine as good as new. And although her first few steps weren't up to par, in no time at all she was back to standing, walking, and even jogging just like before.

Of course, this wasn't to say she didn't need rest. She was being kept at the hospital for a few days to fully recuperate before she'd return home. And was receiving frequent visits by doctors and specialists who wanted to ensure the procedure was working well, since she _was_ just a guinea pig to them. She hadn't seen Mayumi since, but she really hoped she could soon so she could thank her properly for all she'd done.

Right now, she was bored, so she decided to do some sketching, tracing her pencil along the paper to create images. For some reason, nothing concrete was coming to her, just some odd shapes and designs. Kinda like hieroglyphics, but more... angular.

There came a knock at the door, and she glanced up from her sketchbook.

A pale face greeted her, ruby eyes shining above a mirthful smile.

"Kaworu," she said, grateful to see someone at long last. Then, remembering her manners. "Er I mean, Nagisa-sensei."

"Kaworu's fine," he replied. "I just came to check on you and make sure everything was going well."

"Oh well... thank you," she said, genuinely touched.

"And I brought your math homework as well," he said, holding up a few sheets of paper. His smile widened.

Chiyo sighed. She'd rather be sketching, but she obediently took the assignment and did her homework, jotting down numbers and kanji in the correct places to fill up the sheet. After a few minutes, she was done, and she offered it back to Kaworu with barely a sideways glance.

He, too, barely gave it a look, but seemed to take it all in at once.

"Mmhmm, every single one right," said Kaworu, nodding in approval. "Very excellent work."

Chiyo frowned, taking the paper back and eyeing it curiously. Math wasn't her favorite subject, so she'd expected to get at least one of the questions wrong. At least, she'd thought he would ask her to show her work on some of the problems, like her teachers were always demanding. Had it been an easy assignment?

Then she blinked, taking a real, good long look at the paper.

"Wait a minute... this isn't from _my_ math class. This looks like Toji's calculus class."

"Is it?" asked Kaworu with a knowing smile. "Oh, my mistake."

She blinked at the paper again, puzzled. In an odd way, the questions made sense, in another, it was like staring at something written in a foreign language. She could sort of see where problems started but had no idea where they ended. Or the other way around. Her mind had jumped from A to D without going through B and C.

Chiyo pressed a hand to her temple as it started to ache, unable to figure out what was wrong.

Kaworu gently took the paper back from her. "Let's try something else. Brief physics lesson, maybe?"

The petite girl nodded, wondering what her tutor was getting at. Either way, her headache was already subsiding a bit as she cleared her brain to await his questions.

"What can you tell me about what happens when... two magnets, both positively charged, are brought near one another?"

"They'd repel each other, they have the same charge," Chiyo replied automatically. That one was easy. She probably saw that in a cartoon when she was seven.

Kaworu was pleased by her quick response. "Properties of gold?"

"Malleable, conductor of heat and electricity," she replied without even thinking about it.

"Atomic weight of Neodymium?"

"144," she rattled off.

"Who came up with the theory of the Dirac Sea?"

"Paul Dirac, British Physicist, 1930."

Technically that was a history question, not physics. Kaworu gave a knowing smile. "And what can you tell me about Thanagar?"

Blink. That question completely threw her.

"Thanagar? Is that somewhere near Egypt?" she asked, puzzled by the odd name. "Are we moving on to geography?"

"The information must still be settling in your head," remarked Kaworu thoughtfully.

Blinking in confusion, Chiyo asked, "What information?"

Her pale-haired tutor didn't answer, he just smiled that infuriatingly annoying little smile of his and collected up her papers. "I'll make sure to get the correct assignment next time. Have a nice day, Chiyo Suzuhara," he said, giving a bow that was half-formal, half-mocking before he slipped out of the room.

Leaving a twelve-year-old girl sitting very confused as she puzzled out just what had happened. She'd breezed through physics and mathematics on a level that was far above anything she'd known before her accident had pulled her out of formal education. And sure, she'd been studying some medicine to learn more about her injury and later the procedure, but this was something wholly all together different. Her head started to hurt again, and she called a nurse to ask for some painkillers.

Chiyo sighed and sank into the covers of her hospital bed, the painkillers making her sleepy but not quite knocking her out. She couldn't wait to get out of here. All this thinking was driving her nuts. She needed to get out and do something. Physical therapy was relaxing but it wasn't enough.

She wanted to stretch her wings and fly already.

* * *

><p>That night, Chiyo Suzuhara had an odd dream.<p>

Granted, most of her dreams had been sort of... chaotic... even since the incident at the Museum. But she usually didn't remember them. This one she recalled in vivid detail.

She'd awoken on something solid instead of soft, and her back ached. Grimacing, she sat up, and blinked in confusion. Her hospital gown had been replaced by the yellow of her Hawkgirl outfit, though the mask was not present. It was the only thing that was amiss, however, for the wings were unfolded along her shoulders, and the mace rested beside her on the stone slab she'd awoken on.

This she could tell by touch, since it was incredibly dark, and she couldn't make it more than dim shadows. Quickly she grabbed up the mace and tugged on the handle to activate it. Lightning crackled as it lit up, providing illumination. Like a torch, she held it over her head to show where she was.

Chiyo's eyes widened as she took in her surroundings. It was some sort of Egyptian tomb... it could be no where else on Earth. The high stone walls were covered in hieroglyphics, as were the four central columns that ascended in each of the room's corners. She sat on a slab in the middle of the room, which presumably would've held the sarcophagus of the entombed pharaoh. The ceiling wasn't visible; it was beyond the light of her mace, obscured in shadow. And the only door seemed to be wedged into place perfectly. She remembered her mother telling her once these tombs were airtight when finished, so that was no way out.

Chiyo started to breath more heavily as she realized she might've been buried alive.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" came a voice behind her. She spun around.

Although she'd already taken one look around and seen no one here, she was starting to get used to Kaworu sneaking up on her after having been apparently hidden in plain sight. The albino boy was dressed in some khaki shorts and a jacket, looking like some sort of tome raider or adventurer, but otherwise he appeared exactly the same as he always did.

"What... what is this? Is this real?"

"Could be. Ever hear of a racial memory? Perhaps deep down you're descendant from a race of alien visitors to our world, and this is a memory fragment passed on in your genetic code, only recently awoken."

She looked up at his features, but as always, his face was impossible to read. She couldn't tell if he was lying or not. Even so...

"I don't buy it."

"Maybe an alien device downloaded its information into your brain and its trying to settle, and manifests as your dreams to your subconscious."

"Okay now that's just impossible!"

He laughed at that.

"Could be a dream you're having. Maybe I'm some sort of spirit guide?"

"I think I would've preferred a coyote," she grumbled.

"Not a hawk?"

"Shut up," Chiyo said, ignoring how rude it was. It didn't phase the albino boy across from her, however. If anything, his smile only grew wider.

"There's also a chance that I am familiar with physics mankind has yet to fully understand, and part of that is warping the illusion of time and space to my whim. And to demonstrate that I brought you here."

"But why here?" she asked, not convinced that was the truth either. Kaworu was weird, sure, but he was a normal boy. Wasn't he?

"To fulfill my purpose as tutor... and educate you, Chiyo Suzuhara," he said. He stepped around a pillar, and spread out his arms wide at a wide wall suddenly displayed. It was covered in hieroglyphics. Curious, Chiyo raised her mace higher, the light from its crackling head providing illumination.

"But I don't... I can't read Egyptian..." she protested. But as she looked back...

She blinked...

And it was like suddenly all the chicken scratches and vague half-symbols were suddenly written in plain, ordinary Japanese. She read it as easily as she might've the Sunday paper.

"Behold the shape of things to come," she read aloud, more to herself than Kaworu. "That thirteen messengers will descend upon the Earth... Angels," she realized. The word Angel originally meant messenger, after all. "... and, uhm... be battled by the... offspring? That doesn't make sense. Ah, here... three shall hold the Keys to Armageddon, the End of All Things. But that's..."

"Third Impact," he confirmed. His dead serious tone of voice caused Chiyo to look up in alarm.

Kaworu had stopped smiling.

She felt a chill run down her spine. "What does that mean? What's...?"

"It's what happens when an Angel unites with an Evangelion and a Human soul. If done incorrectly, as it was done during Second Impact... it will mean countless deaths of all of Earth's indigenous life forms. If, however, it is done correctly this time... mankind will ascend. Heaven and Earth will be re-written, swept aside in favor of a new making. The spirits united in one glorious whole. Or so they say," he added, more light-heartedly.

* * *

><p>High up in the ancient Egyptian chamber, resting along the ceiling amidst the shadows, a patch of darkness blacker than black hid amongst its natural element, as the Shadow finally located his prey.<p>

Following its instructions from SEELE, the Shadow had gone out into the world to find Hawkgirl and learn more about her for their twisted scenario.

Finding her had been simplicity itself. The Shadow did not see the world as mortals did, with all its myriad colors and lights. It saw shades of gray, everything was dark and colorless. The only exception was those of prominent auras, like the Pilots or the Angels. Superwomen stood out almost painfully bright. He could have tracked down any of them in an instant, though he'd never volunteered this information to SEELE, and they'd never used him for such a purpose.

Hawkgirl shone like a beacon, and had drawn him to the hospital almost the moment he'd been unleashed to find her. The purple aura was very distinct, and it was wrapped around little Chiyo Suzuhara, younger sister of one of the Potentials. The irony was staggering, and the Shadow gleefully lapped it up. The next part of his assignment had been dull. Watching her full time was not an option, as he required time to replenish his energies, and even more if he was working in the daylight. All he saw was that Chiyo was in recovery from a traumatic surgery, and unlikely to be a bother to SEELE. He'd reported both facts to the council, who were deliberating on what to do, and they ordered him to remain vigilant because of her connection to Toji (and by association, Shinji).

Then today... she had up and vanished. He'd had to cast his gaze very, very wide in order to follow her all the way to Egypt. She'd never even boarded a plane, let alone tried to fly here on her own two little wings. He was still musing over how she'd accomplished it when the answer presented itself, stepping into his field of vision below.

_Well well, what was this?_ he mused, catching sight of the one she was talking to. This one he recognized instantly. He'd spoken to SEELE often enough for the Shadow to recognize Tabris on sight. His blue aura was unmistakably bright to the eyes of someone who saw the world in only shades of gray.

_My masters will be very interested to learn about this turn of events_, the Shadow mused. More importantly, this would cause trouble for Kaworu. Maybe even get him very badly hurt.

And the Shadow liked seeing others hurt.

He slithered down along the side of one of the pillars, well out of the light cast by that irritating mace, and listened in more closely to their conversation.

* * *

><p>"There's more," Kaworu said, indicating the wall again. Chiyo looked back. In addition to the writing, there were half a dozen images scattered along the stone. Like someone had added pictures to a book. And the weirdest part was some of the images were familiar. It was like looking at a window into the past... expect this one reflected the future. And although she'd only rarely witnessed Angel attacks, and usually from afar, the papers were often full of snapshots of mankind's enemies.<p>

These stone carvings, thousands of years old, looked almost identical to the sort of thing she could find in the _Tokyo Tattler_.

And then there was that repeated motif. Seven eyes in a vague 'V' shape. She brushed a hand lightly over the stone, feeling the etching of the image, and frowned. It was important somehow, she knew. But she wasn't sure how. Apparently her newfangled translator brainwave thingy didn't include pictures that were _actual_ pictures. Just words.

Then there was the image of a hexagonal pattern that kept cropping up, usually surrounding one of the Angel images.

"What's this?" she asked softly.

Surprisingly, Kaworu gave a straight answer. "Mankind refers to them as the AT Fields. Absolute Terror," he explained. "The light of an Angel's soul is unlike anything else. It is a sacred barrier that protects all that would intrude upon such. Without its AT Field, an Angel is an ordinary creature, subject to ordinary combat. When two opposing AT fields meet they nullify one another, though a stronger AT field can overcome a weaker one."

"One minus one equals zero," said Chiyo, catching the gist of it.

"Crudely put, but yes. Of course some AT fields are far stronger than others."

"So is it technology? Or... magic?"

"Both... and neither. Perhaps you've heard of Clark's law?"

She racked her brain but ultimately couldn't come up with anything. "No."

He didn't seem disappointed, just a bit surprised. "A Science Fiction writer came up with it. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. He had the right idea... he was just a bit ahead of his time."

Chiyo tuned him out as she looked up at the hieroglyphics again. If they depicted Angels that had already attacked, maybe she could see ones that were coming. She jumped to the end of the mural, but paused when she reached it.

A pyramid with an ominous looking Omega symbol on it. Chiyo felt a shiver run down her spine. Even she knew enough to sense a very foreboding air about this image. The images of two males stood opposite the pyramid, hands upraised towards it and one another.

"At first we thought it was just two," explained Kaworu, indicating the figures and the pyramid. "But then we discovered this," he said, brushing away some grit from a littler higher up. Above the pyramid a third figure became visible... a winged woman with a very distinctive mace. She completed a triangle with the other two. Appropriate, considering they were at points on a pyramid.

"Me?" she breathed, eyeing the image. It was unmistakably a Hawkgirl... yet it was over five thousand years old. Even the history on the Hawkmen she'd gotten from Kensuke didn't go back that far. Was their legacy really that old? And what did it all mean?

"Well, this is actually supposed to be depicting Queen Chay-Ara, wife of the great Pharaoh," Kaworu explained. "But, there is something about that name now, isn't there? _Chay_-_Ara_."

"Why does that name... resonate so strangely?" she asked.

"Well, sound it out... names repeated over generations tend to sound different over time..."

Puzzled, she thought hard on the name, imagining how the passing millennia would alter it. _Chay-Ara... Chayera... Chiyero... Chiyo..._

"Oh god," she said, as her mind connected the dots.

"Yes, Chiyo," Kaworu said gently. "You. Whatever happens, somehow you are involved in the Third Impact."

"But... but how do I help? Can I stop it? Its foretold in the future... literally set in stone!" she exclaimed.

Kaworu smiled enigmatically. "Oh Chiyo-chan. Destiny is never set in stone... but shaped by choice. As for what you can do, well... I'm sure you'll figure it out. But know that Shinji is the key."

"Shinji?"

"I think that's quite enough," hissed a new voice, cutting through the air like a knife.

Kaworu and Chiyo both sprang back as something slithered down the nearby pillar, pooling on the floor. A shadowy shape rose up out of the darkness, forming into the rough shape of a man. Darker than the ambient darkness around it, it seemed to be made of nothing but shadows.

"What are you doing, Tabris?" hissed the Shadow menacingly.

Kaworu didn't have a chance to reply before Chiyo was suddenly standing in front of him protectively.

"Who are you?" asked Chiyo, holding up her mace towards the menacing Shadow, who backed away slightly from its lightning-lit head. "Or... or _what _are you?"

"Mind your own business girl... you'll live longer..."

He turned, as if to move away, then suddenly lashed out with an arm that moved with unnatural fluidity, slapping at her side. The impact caught her in the gut and slammed her against the far wall. Her wings cushioned the impact some but she still slumped down, out of breath, on the verge of passing out. The Shadow slid closer to Kaworu, who backed up against the hieroglyphics until his back was to the wall.

"They said not to engage the little bird brat, but nobody said anything about you... you're off schedule... out of line... looks like you need a reminder of who is in charge here..."

Kaworu glared up at the Shadow defiantly, his red eyes glinting like rubies in the dim light. Amused, the Shadow formed his fingers into razor-sharp blades, and lunged at the pale boy.

"Get away from him!"

The sharp fingers impacted against an electrified mace and bounced off, and the Shadow gave a hiss of annoyance as Hawkgirl intercept his attack and blocked with her own. She now stood defiantly in front of Kaworu, who was watching with a confused look. He almost looked positively stunned.

"Out of my way, birdie," hissed the Shadow menacingly, willing himself to grow and loom over her, twice his regular size.

"No," she said, trembling but refusing to look away. "Leave him alone."

He hissed and moved in close, snake-like and sinister. "Don't think you're safe from me, you little..."

Hawkgirl swung instinctively. Her mace tore through a chunk of his shadowy essence, right where the ribcage would be on a normal man. It ripped through it like it was tissue paper, leaving a jagged hole behind. Her opponent gave out a glass-shattering screech from the attack.

The Shadow hissed, clutching at his translucent side. The little harpies weapon had hurt him. _Nothing_ hurt him.

Hawkgirl sensed it, too. Giving a battle cry, she swung again, her wings spurring her forward. But the Shadow split and spread himself in a several directions, avoiding her attack as she passed through him, and re-formed at the other end of the room.

"This isn't over... either of you. They will hear of this."

The winged superwoman just glared. "Who?"

The Shadow laughed, slowly fading from sight.

She took another swing at him, burying her mace in the far wall, but by then he'd faded into the ambient darkness and vanished. Hawkgirl scanned the room, waiting for his next strike, but after a few moments, she felt safe enough to stop and look back at her mace in puzzlement.

"He must be afraid of the light," she reasoned, guessing that shadow didn't like light, logically enough. "I think he's gone now."

"You... you saved me," he said, gazing at her in a mixture of awe and confusion.

"Of course, what else would I do?" she asked. Even if she hadn't been in her Hawkgirl outfit, she was positive she would have at least tried to protect Kaworu regardless. Yet he seemed... incredibly touched by her gesture.

"What else indeed," he murmured, phrasing it not so much as a question as a statement.

"What happened? What was that? Is this _really_ a dream?" she asked, getting more and more convinced it wasn't.

"Eventually you will understand, but for now, I ask but a simple question."

Chiyo nodded, feeling ready.

"Who are you?"

And just like that she wasn't again. Her mouth opened, but... she couldn't bring herself to answer. Really, who was she? he wasn't just one person now, she was two. Chiyo Suzuhara... and Hawkgirl. And maybe she was more than that too. The reincarnation of some Egyptian Queen. Or the descendant of some alien. A guardian angel? A champion of justice? A superwoman? A lost little girl? She might've been all of those things, how could she possibly sum all that up to answer one little question?

"I don't... I don't know," she said, honestly. How could anyone answer a question like that? It was impossible. "I don't know!"

Kaworu smiled knowingly. "You will, Hawkgirl. For now... you may want to wake up." He snapped his fingers.

* * *

><p>Chiyo sprang upright, blinking in shock. She was back in the hospital, back beneath an unfamiliar ceiling, and she gave a sigh of relief. It had all been a dream. She'd never been to Egypt, never seen all those things, never spoken with Kaworu or learned about the End of Days. Just a series of strange nightmares brought on by poor hospital food.<p>

"Whoa, what a weird dr-..." Chiyo trailed off as realization hit her. Hesitantly, she looked down.

She was still wearing her Hawkgirl outfit.

* * *

><p>Thankfully she'd managed to hide the outfit underneath her hospital gown, and then change into the regular clothes that her brother had brought for her the next day. Another day of careful observation after that, and she was deemed fit as could be and released from the hospital. One of the nurses wheeled her to the doors for the very last time, as was medical policy, before she'd say farewell to the wheelchair forever. Thankfully not before she'd hidden the harness under her shirt and the mace in the fresh bouquet of flowers her father had brought her.<p>

She held onto them tightly as three generations of Suzuhara men greeted her, as well Kensuke Aida. There was no sign of Shinji Ikari, and Chiyo bit back a sigh, really wishing she could thank him in person, but alas, it seemed today was not going to be that day. Nor was Mayumi Yamagushi here, though Chiyo had finally managed to send her a message thanking her for everything. Unfortunately, being the heiress to a successful business _and _attending school both cut deeply into her time, and she'd been unable to come to witness this.

Toji was clinging to her like a lifeline, as if he'd been the one through a life-altering surgery. And he was oh so proud as he hugged her. She stifled a grimace of embarrassment, trying to smile for their sake. Oh how she hated her brother, sometimes.

"Listen I gotta run, I'll be late for school otherwise," said Kensuke, turning and taking off down the sidewalk.

"Hey, Aida!" Toji called out. "Tell Shinji... tell him forget about the whole thing, okay? He'll know what I mean."

"And make sure he knows I'm thankful too," Chiyo added. "Okay?"

Kensuke tossed off a two-finger salute as he jogged off backwards. "You got it!"

* * *

><p>There were times when Dr Ritsuko Akagi absolutely hated being right.<p>

She ran the data through the MAGI one more time to make absolutely sure. To anyone else, it was nonsensical numbers and symbols. Misato barely even paid it any attention anymore, her focus was instead on the pilot who was about to fire up Unit-05. Ritsuko had in fact already run those simulations already.

The activation test was routine, after all. She was mostly here to be on hand in case anything unexpected happened. So in the meantime, she was conducting an experiment of her own.

As one of the leading experts (okay, one of the only experts) in the field of Angels and Eva biology and technology, she knew a great deal about what made both of them tick. When it came down to it, both were similar. One thing caused another, if you understood the process involved. Causality. Cause and effect. Gears and circuits were no different than muscles and nervous structures. Machines broke down, organic beings got sick. Repair one, heal the other.

Which was why AT Fields made more sense to her than most, whereas most wrote it off as spiritual nonsense or even magic. Angels and Evas had AT Fields, Humans did not. Normally, there was no way to switch between the two, you were either in one category or another.

Rei Ayanami was the sole exception up until recently. Because she had a mix of Angel DNA in her genetic make-up, she switched to a blue pattern when she was projecting an AT Field outside of an Eva. Gendo Ikari might've now been able to do the same thing, ever since he implanted Adam into himself. They were both capable of switching from red patterns to blue, and back again.

But as Ritsuko looked at the data more closely, she altered the flow of data to pursue another kind of angel. And there... right there...

In a split second normally overlooked, during the transition, the subjects read as pattern purple. The MAGI confirmed it.

"My God," breathed Ritsuko. "Hawkgirl has the same sort of power that Rei does..."

Nearby, Misato glanced up. "Hmm? Did you say something, Ritsuko?"

The faux blonde ignored her. She didn't need to know... yet. "No, nothing... we're ready to begin."

"Right then," replied the Colonel. She turned back to the screen. "Asuka? You all set?"

Ritsuko ignored the two of them as they began the start up sequence. This new revelation definitely changed the game that her lover was playing. Rei was his trump card, his means of upsetting the Scenario that the old men in SEELE had labored on for so very long. But if Hawkgirl had similar abilities, perhaps even stronger abilities, given her permanent purple pattern, she could disrupt everything both sides had worked so hard to achieve.

The faux blonde glanced over at the phone resting on the nearby desk, and reached out to grab it, but hesitated.

Hawkgirl was only a child. And she knew full well what Gendo would do with the information she was about to give him. id she dare?

Did she even have a choice?

She picked up the phone.

"Connect me to the Commander," she stated briskly. "Secure channel, maximum encryption."

Nearby, the black form of Eva Unit-05 stirred.

* * *

><p>The walk home was a joy unparalleled, even if she almost stumbled more than once or twice. It just felt so damn good to be able to walk under her own power. She felt like dancing, but that was of course out of the question. At least for the moment. She needed to build up her strength.<p>

Toji was her strength in the meantime, however. He stayed by her side the entire time.

Finally, they arrived back home. It had been an unusually hot day out, and Toji went to the kitchen to get himself a drink.

Chiyo, meanwhile, had collapsed onto the couch, taking up all three seats by lying fully across it. Her legs were working again but they were worn out from so much walking after such a long period of inactivity. Atrophy, the doctors had called it. The muscles needed more time to rebuild.

Toji was smiling as he poured himself some juice. "I don't think I've ever seen you look so happy."

"I don't think I've ever _been_ so happy!" she exclaimed, kicking her legs up in the air before letting them fall back down. "This is the absolute best!"

_Well, okay, maybe not as good as flying, but still_...

"I'll bet. Pretty soon you'll be back in class with everyone else, so enjoy your freedom while you've got it, little sis."

"Yeah yeah..." she waved dismissively. "At least I don't get stuck with that boring old fossil you're always complaining about. Miss Yukari is plenty fun."

"And luckily suicidal enough to think living in Tokyo-3 is a good idea," muttered Toji.

"I will miss my tutor though. He's..." she stumbled over a suitable word. "Interesting."

"I guess you really like him then," Toji said, finding the idea puzzling.

Chiyo shook her head, not wanting to discuss it further. "So, enough boring talk, what've you got planned for today?"

"Shinji's doing some sort of family dinner thing, so it's just me and Kensuke today once he gets out of school. Wanna come along?"

"Actually, I think I'll pass. Maybe I'll invite Nozomi over for a visit," she said. "I haven't seen her in a while. I wonder what she's been up to?"

"All right, catch you later then."

Chiyo smiled as Toji slipped out of the apartment to join his friends, and stood up, still going slowly, feeling the full weight of her body on her still healing legs. She almost wished she could just fly her way over to see Nozomi, but as it was now... she felt more than a little reluctance to put on the wings again. After the revelation she'd shared with Kaworu in Egypt (or her mind, though she really questioned that after having physical evidence otherwise) she worried regarding her future.

But, she decided, she was just going to take this superheroing thing more slowly for the time being, which didn't mean she needed to give it up entirely. She just needed some practice. Then she'd be able to take on a real superhero challenge, just like the previous Hawkmen and Hawkwomen had.

And then maybe she'd be ready for... for whatever destiny was coming her way.

"Maybe I'll just go for a flight after I visit Nozomi..." she mused. "Or... maybe its time I finally trusted someone with this," she thought.

Well, someone other than Kaworu, who seemed to know. She wasn't even sure how that was possible, but nothing was adding up when it came to that boy. "Maybe Nozomi would be good? I mean she's my best friend... and... well I guess it's good that her family would probably never believe her even if she told them."

Her mind made up, Chiyo slid on the harness, then zipped on a light jacket over it to conceal it.

She had almost made it to the door when she paused, hearing a sound. Something coming from outside. Curious, she made her way over to the window, taking a look outside. From here, she could more clearly hear a distant rumble, and she saw the buildings were already transforming.

Angel attack, she realized.

Her trip to the Horaki residence cancelled, her first destination should've been one of the shelters. She could already see some of the buildings starting to transform, and the alarms going off indicated this one would be too as soon as it was evacuated. Lifting a hand to shield her eyes from the glare of the setting sun, Chiyo scanned the skyline for their enemy. The head of the purple Eva was barely visible against the hilltop, but it was very distinct, and she saw it. It looked like it was lying in wait.

Well, if she was hoping for a better invitation to get a real superhero challenge, she'd found it. She reached up and unzipped her jacket, slapped a hand against the center of her harness, and let her wings unfurl. She tugged down the mask that covered the top of her face, grabbed up her mace, and Hawkgirl was ready to fly.

"Let's do this," she said, leaping off the balcony and taking flight.

* * *

><p>Chiyo's flight took her higher than she usually soared, above the very skyscrapers of Tokyo-3, in an effort to find out where the Angel was coming from. Doing so brought her into a patch of clouds, however, and she momentarily lost sight of the ground. Dipping down lower, she arrived just in time to see the fight stretched out below her.<p>

She spotted the purple Eva easily, and in front of it were a line of tanks, already opening fire. She turned her head and spread out her wings to hover in place a moment, wanting a good look at her target.

Her eyes widened in shock behind the mask of Hawkgirl as she beheld it.

It stood as tall as the Evangelion unit, and abruptly she realized why. The shape and form was identical. It _was_ an Eva. Apart from the paintjob (a rather ominous shade of black with white highlights), it looked almost identical to the purple unit lying in wait for it.

"M-maybe it's a reinforcement?" she asked, hoping against hope as the black Eva marched forward, slashing through some power lines like they were nothing more than cobwebs in its way.

Then the obsidian monstrosity roared, and crouched down. A ragged halo of light, a bending of the visible spectrum, appeared above its head, and there was no longer any doubt left in her mind. It was an Angel. A very big, very angry sounding Angel.

Her eyes widened.

"Oh God," she breathed, unable to take it in. Not only was it an Angel, something her conscious mind was aware of, it was in the shape of an Evangelion. Something her subconscious mind latched onto. She'd never blamed Shinji for what had happened to her, but all the same, she could not help herself. An Eva had been responsible for the accident, and she'd nearly been killed.

"I-I can't..." she stuttered, all her self-confidence gone. There was no way she could do this. She needed to run. Needed to retreat.

Down below, the black Eva obviously didn't have any ideas about retreating, as it launched itself into the air and struck at the purple Evangelion. Unit One went crashing to the ground from a vicious double kick, while the ebony Angel landed crouched like some four-legged beast. Neither seemed to have noticed the tiny figure of Hawkgirl in the skies above. It was a prime opportunity to swoop in and attack.

But she couldn't do it. She could only watch in horror as the scene played out beneath her.

_M-maybe he won't need my help_? Chiyo thought desperately.

The black Angel thrust out one of its arm, and before Chiyo's eyes it stretched, morphed, grew, and reached out to twice its normal length, then further still. Its hands clamped down on the throat of the purple Evangelion, and began to crush it. It wasn't even fighting back.

_No. No stop this. Get back. Fight! FIGHT!_

"Fight it!" she shouted weakly, though neither could hear her so high up as she was.

Chiyo wasn't the praying type, but at this point she'd gladly live the rest of her life as a miko if it meant her prayer for help would come, for her and the pilot of Unit One.

_Supergirl? Blue Beetle? Steel?_ she thought frantically. _Hell at this point I'd settle for Copperhead!_

But no one was coming. What could she do with her tiny little mace? If she was smart, she would've turned and ran, gotten help.

But she couldn't. All of her thoughts focused on one simple question:

What if it had been Toji down there?

Gritting her teeth, Hawkgirl dove.

* * *

><p><strong>Next Time!<br>**Unit One engaged the enemy, swatting aside its freakishly long arms and stepping in close, grabbing holds of its own throat, snarling viciously. Hawkgirl, meanwhile, had reached the broken entry plug. The winged woman shoved aside broken fragments of the plug without effort, finding them lighter than feathers.

The pilot...

"Oh god!" she gasped, covering her mouth.

They were covered in blood.

* * *

><p><strong>Omake – Princess of Thunder<br>**Meanwhile, in the Superwomen of Eva 1 Universe...

On a rooftop in the midst of Tokyo-3, two of the three stooges stood, the one pleading with the other (who was wearing a ridiculous get-up with the largest horns he'd ever seen) to stop his mad schemes.

Toji, however, only backhanded Shinji, sending him sprawling as if he'd been struck by a car.

"What reason have I? Insufferable insect. You dare to think you have power, to believe us equals? You think you can comprehend the wrongs done unto me? The horrors I have witnessed?"

Shinji glared back at the fiend wearing his friend's face. He said nothing, but his look was clearly challenging despite the blood dripping from his brow.

The Asgardian glared out the eyes of his puppet. "Revenge, mortal. Thor loved Midgard. And it loved him. So I will see it burn."

The portal shuddered, then opened fully, wide as three skyscrapers and nearly as tall as one. Great snakes began to emerge from the distortion. Big as battleships and vicious as rabid hyenas, they launched themselves at the city, teeth gnashing and roaring fit to shatter glass. Already anti-Angel artillery was being called to bear against them, but there were so many it was hard to make a dent in their ranks.

"Children of Jormungander, the World Serpent," explained Toji, brandishing his staff, lit with eldritch flames. "Even your precious Evangelions will be no match against the likes of my army!"

And indeed, he seemed to be right. With Shinji as his captive, Unit One was out of the picture anyway, but in the distance, Shinji could see Unit Two was being deployed, the crimson battle type unloading payload after payload at the draconic attackers. Asuka seemed to be doing pretty well, but even the addition of her Eva wasn't going to turn the tide here. Not completely.

And then the sky began to darken, as storm clouds gathered overhead.

Noticing the change in lighting, Toji glanced upwards, and glared. "No..."

Electricity crackled overhead. Lightning ripped through their green scales like bullets through tissue paper, and with great roars of pain, both the serpents came crashing down. Several buildings were flattened, but the city of Tokyo-3 had seen worse damage during Angel invasions. The rooftop on which Toji and Shinji were on, however, had been spared, and both boys looked up in shock at their savior as they arrived.

"The Princess of Thunder," breathed Shinji, not quite able to believe his eyes.

Chiyo landed, the wind rippling along her red cape as she glared across the rooftop at her brother and her enemy.

"Toji!" she shouted, raising up her hammer and letting it spin. Lightning crackled along it. "We would have words with thee!"

* * *

><p><strong>Authors Notes:<br>**Those who might critique Toji being given Calculus math classes in high school, given his lack of aptitude and young age, must remember that Evangelion is set in the 'near future' where I expect courses are likely to be a bit further along. In addition, nobody said **he** was any good at it.

I had originally planned to put Toji in Eva Five/Angel Nine (this scene was the original inspiration to write the story), but realized I didn't want to make him a continued Dude-in-Distress in the story, it would seriously ruin some of his character. Plus, this story takes place largely in Rebuild continuity, so Asuka was the victim to keep things stable, even if the encounter went just a bit differently than normal.

Today's omake is a special case, as I've been giving a lot of thought recently to another SWOE story, this time with Chiyo inheriting the powers and mantle of Thor, with her brother Toji being possessed by Loki (Toki? Loji?) to continue the "I love you but must fight you" dynamic they share. It'll likely never to happen, especially since I can't even finish this story, but I thought I'd share.

Specials thanks to Mike313 and OrionPax09, the former of who beta read this chapter, and the latter of whom has produced a stunning fan artwork of the Chiyo Hawkgirl.


	7. The Nth Factor

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Evangelion or DC Comics. Please don't sue me, I'm poor.

**Summary: **The loss of her ability to walk devastated Chiyo Suzuhara, the younger sister of Toji. That is, until she came across a discovery of her mother's. One that lifted her up into the clouds.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Seven: <strong>**The Nth Factor**

Inside the NERV Command Center, things were tense.

Colonel Katsuragi was MIA, presumed dead in the explosion at Unit Five's activation site. Doctor Akagi ditto. Commander Ikari was taking charge of the operation personally, and to compound matters, their second most skilled Eva pilot had been hijacked along with her advanced prototype Eva by this new Angel. It was a catastrophe of truly epic proportions.

Fearful of the fate of her mentor (not fully convinced she was dead just yet), Lieutenant Maya Ibuki was welcome for the distraction that came when her screen lit up. "Sir? We've got incoming on the battlefield... something small coming in fast..."

"A missile?" asked Hyuga, sitting next to her.

"Can't be, for that its not fast enough, and no tailfire..."

"Could it be...?" asked Aoba aloud, glancing up at the readings.

Commander Ikari interrupted their conversation like an icy wind. "Put it on the secondary screen," he ordered. A blip appeared. "Magnify."

The blip enlarged, and in seconds the image was more clearly defined. The image of a small, pre-adolescent girl with dark hair and a slim build wearing a canary yellow and black outfit, complete with feathered mask. Oh, and lest we not be forgetful of the expansive wingspan and giant honking mace.

However, such a sight barely phased Gendo Ikari, who had seen far stranger.

"It's one of the Superwomen," reported Hyuga, unnecessarily. As if it could be anything else.

At his left, Aoba confirmed it. "Hawkgirl," he identified. He was an avid reader of the Tokyo Tattler, which tended to specialize in Superwomen stories these days.

"Sir, what do we do?" asked Maya.

Ikari considered his options for half a moment, but ultimately decided this wasn't a consideration. Hawkgirl would be no concern.

"Keep the girl under observation," he said after a moment. "Primary focus is to be on the Angel Nine. Lay down suppressing fire and give the following orders to Unit One:"

"Attack the Angel. Give no quarter."

* * *

><p>Having no illusions about beating the monstrous Angel solo, Hawkgirl decided that her best option was to provide aid and give the Evangelion a better chance at fighting back.<p>

Which meant getting the beast's attention.

She remembered one time she'd tagged along with her brother and Kensuke Aida on a camping trip, and had to deal with mosquitoes. They had also been tiny, and yet she had been miserable for days because she couldn't swat a single one out of the air. Fast and maneuverable, they were dangerous against a bigger foe.

_I could be too_, she rationalized. She just needed to keep the Angel distracted, give Unit One a chance, and victory would be theirs.

Chiyo tugged on the handle of her mace, letting lightning crackle over the head. "Here goes nothing," she murmured. Then, gave her customary war cry and let gravity claim her, swooping down low to smash her mace against the top of the dark Angel's head.

Hawkgirl dove like a stone, pushing herself to fall faster, not content to let gravity do the job alone. Building up speed, she swooped in for the black behemoth, which was currently in the process of choking the life out of its purple counterpart.

Her weapon reared back, tiny lightning bolts dancing along its frame...

* * *

><p>"Sir, she's diving!"<p>

Commander Ikari ignored the report, even as he kept his eyes on the main screen. Hawkgirl was beneath notice. One puny little club wouldn't even scratch the Angel's AT Field...

Hawkgirl struck, and electricity crackled along the back of the black Evangelion's head, causing it to roar in pain. Far more pain than it should have been in.

Behind his ever-present glasses, the eyes of Ikari widened in outright shock.

* * *

><p>Chiyo felt a surge of satisfaction as she swooped back up into the sky, wings spreading as she regained altitude. She'd never thought of herself as a particularly vindictive girl, but hearing the Angel roar in agony had been truly satisfying.<p>

Her attack had thrown the Angel off balance, allowing the Eva below to grab its midsection and kick hard, throwing it off.

"Take that, you oversized tin can!" she shouted, shaking her mace in what she hoped was a threatening manner.

The Angel landed badly, flat on its back, and it rolled onto its side, seemingly dazed. It might be another opportunity for her to attack it again. Her mace seemed to hurt it. A lot.

Chiyo swooped wide, building up momentum for her next attack, and raised up her mace...!

"Don't attack!"

Chiyo blinked, head snapping up as the call came from out of nowhere. Then, she turned her head, realizing it came from the Evangelion's onboard speaker system. The pilot was communicating with her.

"Why not?" she shouted, not sure if he could hear her from this range. She flew over towards the mecha.

Apparently, he could, however, because his reply came moments later. "The pilot is still onboard!" The purple behemoth pointed a hand at the black beast, still lying on its side, struggling to regain its mobility. As it did, she spotted what he was talking about, some sort of blue growth on the back that seemed out of place, and a white capsule in it, more than big enough for a person.

_Is that how Eva's operated? _she wondered. _Ick_.

Then, her mind drew on a different tangent, and she had a sudden realization. "They've turned against us?!" she asked.

The purple behemoth shook its head. "NO! She's trapped, and we need to get her out!"

"How do we do that? What do we do?" she asked, falling back for the moment, hovering closer to the purple Eva's shoulder. Hearing the voice of its pilot made it somehow seem less frightening than it had been a moment ago.

"We need to get her out! Can you keep it distracted?"

She shivered at the idea of being the main target, but she nodded anyway. "Y-yeah, okay. Got it!"

The Angel charged, roaring like a wild beast. Two outstretched arms came at her, but she saw them coming and had ample time to dodge and spin. Long hours of time in the skies had given her greater maneuverability when it came to flying, and now she executed a flawless roll that few others could, diving down low towards the black monster's back.

This time she didn't so much _hit_ the Angel as she _dragged_ her mace along the black monstrosities side, letting lightning crackle over its frame. It gave another roar of pain, swiping wildly at her. Hawkgirl was already well out of the way of its wild swing. She couldn't tell if she was damaging it, the black armor of the Eva looked _almost_ unmarked, but she certainly was hurting it somethin fierce.

Shinji and Unit One charged, a renewed sense of determination giving him a fresh wave of strength as he slammed into the beast's back. He grasped at the armor plating of the Eva, trying to gain a firm handhold of the entry plug so he could wrench it out. But the Angel was equally determined to hold onto its hostage, and lashed out with its freakishly long arms again. This time, it impacted hard against the much bigger body of Unit One, and Shinji was sent crashing down amongst some abandoned tanks, flattening them like tinfoil.

"Hey! Leave him alone!" shouted Chiyo, zipping down towards the Angel again.

The black beast roared, rearing back a hand to bring it crashing down towards the purple Eva's head. Hawkgirl swooped in low, swinging hard at the Angel's wrist, knocking its blow off course just enough that its fist glanced against Unit One's shoulder instead of crushing its head. Shinji didn't waste the opportunity, shifting his Eva's legs underneath the Angel and kicking as hard as he could, sending it crashing into a nearby hillside and giving him some much needed breathing room.

"Thanks!" he shouted.

"Anytime!" she replied, giving a jaunty salute, swinging back into the air in a wide arc, and waiting for another opportunity to strike.

However, the Angel was ready this time, and had learned something of her flight patterns. When she ducked under its first outstretched arm and was ready for the next one, it surged forward to strike at her with its armored, horned head. Were it not for her wings instinctively closing around her like a shield of metal, she would've been severely injured. As it was, she went flying from the impact, and not under her own control.

Pin wheeling her arms and throwing out both wings and limbs wide in order to halt her wild flight, Chiyo finally brought herself back under control. Just as the dark Eva made another swiping motion at the purple one. With its longer limbs, it was easily overpowering the good Eva. However, Shinji was making progress of his own, and swept both Angel's arms in one of his, gripping them tightly as he clawed with his other hand at the Angel's back, eventually managing to snag and rip off the covering of the entry plug, fully exposing it.

Grey tendrils of ooze, the true form of the Angel, started to slither out, attacking the fingers of Unit One. Hawkgirl dove in close, slapping at them with the electrified mace, driving them back. Her weapon seemed to give them fits, they all but shriveled up and died wherever she touched with it. Right now, Shinji was grateful for the assistance, and grabbed the plug firmly in hand, pulling.

_Almost... almost...! _ Shinji tugged hard, calling on reserves of strength he didn't even know he had until right then and there.

* * *

><p>"They're doing it!" cheered Aoba, hands up like some sort of groupie at a rock concert. "Woohoo! Go Hawkgirl!"<p>

Commander Ikari, however, continued to glare at the screen, even as his subordinates cheered at every strike the Eva and the superwoman were able to strike against their enemy. Though his head had not moved, his focus had shifted. Now he glared at the image of the yellow-clad bird who was single-handedly disrupting everything. True, the Angel needed to be defeated for the survival of humanity. But Shinji and Asuka were also pawns in his game, and he needed to ensure they were in the right places at the right times. Hawkgirl was changing the game entirely. Whatever her weapon was, it was cleaving through AT Fields like they weren't there at all.

"Before you were an annoyance," muttered the Commander darkly. "Then a hindrance. Now you're a problem. I will not tolerate this."

He weighed his options quickly, considering as always what was best for the Scenario first. And realized he only had one way to regain control of the situation before it spiraled any further out of control.

Commander Ikari leaned forward, interlacing his hands in front of his face, apparently deep in thought. However, this was also to disguise the movement of his lips from any watching security cameras. With his voice lowered and the confusion (and now cheering, he noted in disgust) still going on because of the battle, he wasn't likely to be overheard except by the one person he wanted to hear him.

His second, Vice-Commander Fuyutski, realized this as he leaned forward.

"Summon Copperhead. I have need of him."

"Now sir?"

Gendo just glared at him, and Fuyutski flinched under the intensity of that glare. Many people would not know this, but Commander Ikari was not as perpetually angry and cold as he seemed to be. He had many shadowed degrees, many subtle flavors. But right now, he was very, very angry indeed. So cold was his glare that it could give frostbite.

"I'll have him on the line in a moment," replied the old professor, only a little shaken. Working alongside Gendo for so long had helped him build up some resistance to his former student's moods.

"Ensure it's encoded," the Commander of NERV replied, as Fuyutski slipped off the platform via the elevator and exited the command center. With his second in command gone, he turned back to the command center and raised his voice.

"Activate the Dummy System."

Maya offered a half-hearted protest. "But sir, they're doing it!"

"They won't stand a chance of rescuing the pilot until the Angel is defeated. It takes priority. If the pilot and Hawkgirl refuse to do it, then we shall," he replied, and his tone of voice brooked no argument. "Do it. That was not a request."

* * *

><p><em>Almost... YES!<em>

The entry plug slid free of the gray ooze with a sickening pop, slipping into Unit One's hand. Shinji threw up his arms in a joyous whoop!

And then, suddenly, everything went dark. All the power shut off on his console, save the blood red glare of the backup lights.

"What... NO!"

There was a brief moment where control was switched from one Ikari's hands to another's. In that instant, Unit One went completely still, slumping forward, its grip loose like it was asleep. The entry plug Unit One had just rescued hadn't been held securely enough in its grip when the transition had begun. Unable to do anything to stop it, Shinji could only watch in horror as the entry plug slipped free of his Eva's fingers and began to plummet towards the cold, unforgiving ground below.

"NOOO!"

Chiyo heard the scream and looked just in time to see the plug hit the ground, cracking hard as it impacted against the Earth. It bounced and rolled down the hill until it finally came to a stop at the base, propped up awkwardly against a rocky outcropping. Orange liquid seeped out of innumerable cracks as Chiyo zipped down towards it as quickly as possible.

Inside of the Eva, Shinji could only watch in horror as great mechanical hands closed over his, and his view was obscured by the Dummy Plug system display. He could see and feel everything being done as normal, but had no control over his actions or that of the Eva. It was like sleepwalking through a nightmare. A very real, very terrible nightmare.

Unit One engaged the enemy, swatting aside its freakishly long arms and stepping in close, grabbing holds of its own throat, snarling viciously. Hawkgirl, meanwhile, had reached the broken entry plug. The winged woman shoved aside broken fragments of the plug without effort, finding them lighter than feathers.

The pilot...

"Oh god!" she gasped, covering her mouth.

She was covered in blood. And she didn't seem to be breathing either. It wasn't easy to tell because of the red and orange suit she was in, but she seemed to be very badly injured. Possibly even...

Chiyo was about to reach down and carry the pilot to safety, but she abruptly realized she had no idea if that sort of thing could injure the pilot further.

_Think, think_, she commanded herself_. Must be some way to tell, must be some way to get help. Must be some way _to_ help_!

"Hawkgirl! Help me!"

Chiyo glanced up as her thoughts were interrupted by the cry.

Unit One and the Ninth Angel were locked into combat, the Evangelion trying to crush the Angel's neck, even as Shinji continued to scream, shouting obscenities and demanding he be let free so he could help Asuka. Chiyo couldn't see what was happening, but it seemed like he'd lost control of his Eva too. Must've been the Angel, she realized.

Grateful for a problem she could deal with, Hawkgirl swiftly flew up along the side of the purple Eva, slapping her mace against the side of its leg and torso, letting electricity crackle along the limbs. The mighty war machine gave a roar.

"No, it's not me! It's not me!"

"Shinji, what's wrong?!" she screamed, not understanding the issue. She couldn't be sure if she was helping or harming.

"It's the-!"

* * *

><p>"Disable his speakers," ordered Commander Ikari quietly.<p>

Reluctant to obey yet terrified of repercussions, Aoba flicked the switch, and continued to watch the screen in growing horror.

* * *

><p>"It's the-!"<p>

Whatever he meant to say next got cut off, and the purple behemoth lashed out again, but not at the Angel this time. Unit One unleashed a backhand of monumental proportions that would have hit Chiyo full force, if her wings hadn't slid out in front of her like a protective cocoon at the last minute. Still, it was enough power to send her tumbling end over end at incredible speeds. She screamed as she flew completely out of control, coming to a crashing halt... somewhere.

Darkness enveloped her, and she knew no more.

* * *

><p><em>Buzz.<em>

Chiyo felt a ringing in her ears. It made her head ache. And her head was already hurting something fierce.

_Buzzzzzz_.

Her head continued to ache as she rolled onto her side, face pressed into something hard and metallic. Slowly, it dawned on her that it was not her soft pillow back at home. And the buzzing... ringing...

A hand groped at her side, reaching for her cell phone, hidden in the pocket of her uniform. She'd brought it with her. Gingerly, she lifted it up to her face, moving her aching head as little as possible, to gaze through bleary eyes at the screen. A few missed calls, and a text message, all from Toji.

**WHR R U?**

She jolted upright, wincing as the motion brought fresh pain to her head and neck. The wings folded around her retracted from the movement, folding back at her sides. Carefully, she tilted her head, feeling a dull ache all over, but no sharp pains reappeared. Convinced she wasn't seriously injured, she then made an attempt to stand. Her new legs supported her, proving mercifully undamaged.

Then it all came rushing back... the Eva... the Angel... the Pilot...

"Oh god!"

Her mace had fallen right beside her, and she grabbed it up, spreading wings and leaping up into the skies, trying to get her bearings. Her head pounded but thankfully the pain was already fading as she took in the sight below her. Apparently, the Eva had knocked Hawkgirl into a nearby mountainside far from the battle. By now she could see various vehicles and soldiers combing the hillside. No sign of the purple Eva, but the black one had been torn to pieces and scattered across the landscape with a savage ferocity that made her feel ill. Sure, she hated the Angels too, but this... this felt wrong.

Dropping down from her altitude, she tried to get a better view of the Pilot that had been salvaged from the Angel-Eva monster. There was a lot of activity, but she finally spotted the distinct orange and red plugsuit on a gurney, being wheeled over to an ambulance. Undoubtedly, the medical staff would know better how to treat her than Chiyo ever could. At least she definitely wasn't dead. If she was, they probably would've zipped her up in a black bag by now.

Unbeknownst to her, Hawkgirl was under observation. While the medical vehicle and the civilians were dispersing, the military was still very much active in the area. As were NERV's clean-up crews, working to recover the many shredded pieces of the Ninth Angel. One of the former, situated up in a command vehicle flanked by a pair of tanks, was keeping watch on the superwoman.

A Major sat in the command vehicle watching the monitors, which zoomed in on Hawkgirl's position, highlighting the yellow bird with their crosshairs.

"What do we do, sir?" asked one of his subordinates.

The  
>Major was about to reply he didn't give two damns when another of his grunts interrupted him.<p>

"Sir, we've just gotten word from NERV Command... they say Hawkgirl is an enemy combatant. She attacked our Eva during the last battle. And we've just gotten word our medical teams have all withdrawn with the injured. Orders?"

Well that was a no brainer. "Shoot her out of the sky," muttered the Major darkly.

* * *

><p>So intent Chiyo was on her own musings she did not notice the swivel of turrets and the aiming of barrels. The firing of tanks, however, she could not have missed in a hundred years. Thankfully, the shots flew well clear of her by virtue of poor aim and a tiny target. The next volley she was ready for.<p>

"What the hell do you think you're doing?! I'm on your side!"

Her pleas fell on deaf ears. Chiyo ducked and dodged, diving low and out of the path of the missiles. Then she quickly climbed higher as they adjusted their trajectory to keep track of her, flying up into the clouds and getting lost amongst them. She emerged above the cloud line soaked but safe, unable to be seen by the ground forces.

"Geeze, rude much? The hell is their problem?" she grumbled.

_Bzzzzzzzzz_

Angrily she slapped her phone, not wanting to risk opening it to turn the noise off in case it let her family know where she was. At least she'd left it on vibrate.

She'd done all she could here. As far as she knew, the Pilot of the black Eva was safe, and that was a small comfort, but she had no idea where had happened to Unit One or its own pilot, or what had transpired against the Angel. Right now she had more mundane concerns. Like getting home and out of costume before her secret got out.

She flew like the fires of Hell were after her, as fast as possible, the metallic wings close to her body for maximum speed. She had to squint against the wind whipping at her face, making her eyes tear up. So much so, in fact, she nearly overshot her target. She almost slammed into the side of the very apartment building rising up out of the ground before she unfurled her wingspan and came to a halt, hovering a moment before lowering down to her bedroom level.

But then Chiyo saw her father through the window, and swiftly ducked out of sight, cursing her ill luck. Now she had to make a choice. Even if she waited for him to leave and flew into the room, took off her costume, and announced herself... they'd find out in short order she was Hawkgirl. If she just appeared inside of the home after they'd searched it, they'd figure out in short order the only way in would be through a window. Or, she could fly in through the dayroom window, hide her gear there instead... no, that wouldn't work, she realized. She had no clothes to change into.

This was really not good, she thought, desperately wishing for some way out of this mess. For a wild moment, she considered just dropping the pretense entirely, and coming clean. She'd put her father and brother through a lot, maybe it was time to reveal who Hawkgirl really was?

Finally, an idea struck her. A very dangerous one, but the only way she saw to possibly escape from this mess with her secret intact.

First, she flew over to the dayroom window and made sure it was open. It was wide enough for a person to fit through, and the window was mercifully unlocked. The screen in place could be moved aside and back into place with little effort. That done, she flew back outside and waited until her father left her room, ignoring the buzz of her cell phone as he again tried to call her, and slipped in. As swiftly as she could, she stripped off her costume, shoving everything under her bed and grabbing some of her regular clothes, quickly pulling them on. So far, this had been the easy bit.

Now, she stepped up to the frame of her room's open window. This was going to be the hard part.

Without her wings, Chiyo was made acutely aware of just how high up her home was. Twenty-five stories positively loomed below her menacingly, and for the first time since she'd flown, she knew a terrifying fear of heights. Breathing out slowly, she inched onto a ledge. It was just barely wide enough for her feet, and extended all the way around the side of the apartments. Fortunately, the dayroom was on the same floor as her home. Just... a short walk away normally.

_A short walk_, she told herself. _Its just a short walk. Don't look down, and keep going_.

Inching her way along the side of the building, however, it felt like a hundred miles and took an eternity. And she suffered through every nerve-wracking second of it.

At one point, she slipped.

Her foot fell out from underneath her, and Chiyo grasped either side of the window she was nearest, holding on. Her foot was almost instantly back in place and her balance quickly recovered, but her heart was racing so fast she thought it would give the Flash a good run for her money. She almost blacked out, but stubbornly clung on to the side of the building and her consciousness, and after another small eternity, began to inch along again. Moments later, she was outside the window to the day room.

Stumbling out of the day room and down the hall, she all but flung herself at the door to her home. Her father was at her side at an instant, Toji not far behind her.

"What happened?"

"I-I was on my way to Nozomi's," she said, some real fear and panic lacing her words. "I got caught outside the shelters when the Angel attack started, I got lost, I got... I got...!"

He hugged her fiercely to her, and she felt Toji do the same from her other side. The Suzuhara family clung tightly to one another. "Thank God you're safe," was all their father said.

Safe, yes. But not unharmed.

* * *

><p>"Once again you're running away."<p>

Shinji did not reply as he turned on his heel and walked out of the cavernous office, hands still heavily shackled in front of him. They would be unlocked once he reached the surface, and Shinji Ikari released with no public record of what had transpired between him and NERV.

Gendo paused for a brief moment, wondering for just an instant if he should try to impart some final wisdom to his renegade son. But in the end, it was a waste of time. The boy had made his decision. The doors hissed shut as he slipped out of the room.

The Commander of NERV reached over to his desk and picked up the phone.

"It's Ikari... remove the Third Child from the list of active personnel. We'll manage much easier with the Dummy System as our primary operator."

It would be safer for Rei in the long run as well, he realized. Then, realizing how reassured that made him feel, ruthlessly crushed the emotion he was feeling. Rei was a pawn no different from the others. Never mind what she was or who she reminded him of, she was just a piece on the chessboard. A tool to be used towards the Scenario, then discarded. Absolutely nothing else.

His hands were shaking.

To distract himself, Gendo picked up the next report on his desk to peruse, then stamped his approval on the request when he had all the relevant facts. This pattern continued until he got to a rather troubling report from the fifth tank division commander.

In the aftermath of the Ninth Angel's attack, things had been mitigated and patched up. Reports had come in that both Doctor Akagi and Colonel Katsuragi had survived the activation at ground zero, Pilot Soryu had been quarantined, and the damage dealt by his sons tantrum had been minimal and dealt with. All in all, it did not seem nearly so bad as it previously had. However, one element still eluded Gendo's efforts to attend to, and this irked him fiercely.

Hawkgirl had been classified as an enemy by NERV, to be shot down on sight. Unfortunately the JSDDF were utterly useless in this regard, and had completely failed to capture or kill her. She'd given them the slip, and vanished. She'd be back though. Hawkgirl had a knack for appearing just where she could be the most damaging to Gendo's plans. Hopefully Copperhead would prove more capable of tracking her down, but at the moment, there was little to go on.

Gendo Ikari threw down the latest military report, glaring at it through his ever-present sunglasses. If hate could ignite paper, it would have quickly burst into flame.

This was not going according to the Scenario.

The intercom buzzed. Ritsuko's private frequency. He idly tapped his desk console. "Yes?"

"Sir, I have some information... I think you'll want to see this. The Vice Commander is already here."

Gendo Ikari was not given to rushing. In his mind, great men did not rush, they made others rush for their benefit. They were the ones who set the pace. None the less, he walked a little more briskly than usual to Central Dogma, where he found his two colleagues deep in discussion by one of the computer terminals. Not another soul was in sight, so they could speak freely.

"What is it?" he asked.

Accustomed to skipping pleasantries, Ritsuko brought up the terminal in front of her and put an image on the display.

On the screen, a typical human profile, with a red aura. Beside it, the form assumed by the Third Angel in blue. Next to the Angel was an outline that could only be Rei Ayanami, in alternating colors. Another image of a question mark was surrounded by an orange glow.

"Blood Patterns. The best way we have to locate and identify Angels. You're familiar with these types... this one was new recently, the MAGI identified but could not be made to extrapolate that information," she tapped a key, and the silhouette of Hawkgirl was added to the others, surrounded by a purple aura.

"We know this already. Get to the point."

Ritsuko stiffened at his cold tone. "The point is that I was running some simulations, and I discovered this..." she tapped another key on the keyboard, and the shifting colors of Rei's slowed. Red became dull, then mixed in blue until it became purple. Identical to Hawkgirl's.

"The pattern's the same. Its also the same with Adam," the faux blonde said meaningfully, glancing at her lover's wrist. He stubbornly ignored her look.

"Why didn't you tell me about this prior?"

"I'd only just made the discovery when the Ninth Angel attacked, sir," she said grimly, her head aching as if to emphasize her point.

Commander Ikari glared at her impassively, perhaps unconvinced, but did not pursue the tangent.

"So... another like Rei. And maybe myself as well," he added, flexing his gloved right hand.

"Similar but different," Ritsuko explained what she'd learned about the purple pattern around Hawkgirl. "And then there's this..."

The bottle blonde held up a hand. Clutched between two fingers was a single metallic feather. "Recovered from Hawkgirl's first fight with the Copperhead. I had the material analyzed."

She tapped a key on the computer (really, did she pre-set these things just to appear dramatic?) and another image came up. They looked like blueprints for Hawkgirl's wings and mace. They were surprisingly detailed.

"No similar material exists on the planet, and believe me I've double-checked. The compound is wholly unique. For lack of a better term I've been calling it nth metal. Atomic number 676, with conductive and gravity canceling properties. Preliminary studies suggest it may be psycho-reactive. Truly fascinating."

"Psycho-what?" asked Fuyutski, trying to keep pace with his younger colleagues.

"It means it responds to your thoughts," Ritsuko replied.

The older man resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He understood the word, he just wasn't sure of the how. He said as much.

"Your guess is as good as mine. But obviously this is just the icing on the cake. The real power in the metal is the anti-AT field ability."

"It cancels it out as if it isn't even there...does that mean it generates its own field?" asked Fuyutski.

"No, it seems to be designed specifically to radiate an... Absolute Terror Nullification Field of some type. It's almost like a negative space. Instead of positive field meeting positive field, like normal, and canceling one another out... it just bypasses it entirely. Without their AT Fields, most Angels are at least somewhat vulnerable to physical attacks."

"Could a stronger AT field hold her off?"

"From what I can tell," Ritsuko replied, double-checking her research. "No, it might slow her down a bit more, but it wouldn't stop her."

"Can it be duplicated?"

Ritsuko shook her head. "I wouldn't even know where to begin without more to study, but right now I'd have to say no. I've done simulations with the MAGI, and they predict that even if the metal could be replicated artificially, we have no way to properly refine it. It's a science well above our own."

"So where did it come from?" asked the old professor, puzzled by this mystery.

Gendo, however, was uninterested in origins. Only practical application. "This is all the more reason Copperhead retrieve it from her body when he deals with her." He turned to leave, Fuyutski followed behind.

"Sir," called Ritsuko, bringing both men to a halt. "Is Copperhead going to... assassinate... Hawkgirl?"

"If he must," he said, turning to leave again. And again Ritsuko raised a token protest.

"Sir she's... she's just a little girl. She can't be older than twelve, at most."

"And?" he asked icily, his yellow sunglasses flashing.

As always, she shivered under his cold gaze. "N-nothing," she stammered out.

With surprising gentleness, but no warmth behind it, Gendo reached out to lay a hand on her shoulder. "The time of the Scenario is rapidly approaching," he said. "We cannot allow things to be jeopardized at this point."

"But she's just a little girl... without this nth metal she should be harmless to us. Surely we don't need to kill her to get it?"

Gendo released her shoulder, stepping into the elevator. Fuyutski followed obediently. As the lift chimed and the doors started to close, the Commander of NERV gave his final thoughts on the matter.

"We will do what is necessary."

* * *

><p>She'd failed.<p>

Again.

Sighing, Chiyo gazed down at the mask in her hands, imagining it was gazing up at her in turn. Judging silently. _Weakling_, it was saying. _Think yourself worthy of the Hawk mantle_?

So many generations of Hawks she'd unearthed records of. So many other superwomen who protected Tokyo-3 and the world. The Eva Pilots, the military, NERV, even her father. How could she, a mere twelve year old girl, possibly have thought she could help? Even with all of this magical tech like the wings and the mace, she was useless. She'd failed to save either Pilot. She it on good report from Toji (who had it on good report from Kensuke) that Shinji had been ultimately alright, but it hadn't changed the fact that she'd been little more than a nuisance.

"I'm a fraud," she said aloud.

She threw the mask as far as she could, hitting the wall and letting it bounce off to roll over to the side of the bed with the rest of her Hawkgirl equipment. Equipment she'd never touch again. She'd had her fun, and she'd been lucky not to have been killed, but Chiyo Suzuhara was no superwoman. No hero. She was lucky she hadn't been killed.

* * *

><p>The sun had just begun to set on another tranquil day on Tokyo-3. Only a week after the attack of the last Angel, and things had settled down to a routine approaching normal. It was a testimony to the human race they could so easily adapt to such a terrible war with little change to their daily lives.<p>

But a siren's wail disrupted that fragile peace, and within seconds the tranquil city was mobile, buildings transforming, people evacuating. The war for the continued survival of humanity had come to another battlefield.

The Tenth Angel rose on the horizon, an eerie light shining in its skull-like face as it floated almost leisurely towards the city of its enemies and its ultimate goal.

* * *

><p>And meanwhile, high up in the orbit of Earth, standing on the tranquil surface of the moon, Kaworu Nagisa lifted up his hand and pressed the button built into his plugsuit, feeling it tighten around his thin frame. As with all such suits, it was perfectly tailored to his body type, and fit like a second skin. Ruby eyes gazed up at the sky, taking in the sight of Earth. Beautiful, placid, it hung in the heavens like a delicate jewel.<p>

"The time is at hand."

* * *

><p><strong>Next Time!<br>**Another explosion came from above, and metal started to rain down into the mostly empty shelter, along with bits of burning debris.

Toji scrambled to the exit only after he saw he and Hikari were the last ones left, gently pushing her ahead of him as the platform above came crashing down, nearly missing them as they evacuated into the tunnels.

To be fair to Toji, he was normally quite on point about the matters that were most important to him. He was also a normal high school student confronted with battles and destructions on a war that most of humanity couldn't even comprehend.

So he'd made it almost halfway down the tunnel, still pushing Hikari along, when he came to a sudden halt. She did as well, turning back to him in surprise as she also realized what was wrong. They were short one family member.

"Where's Chiyo?!"

* * *

><p><strong>Omake – Racing<br>**It was another peaceful day in Tokyo-3. Rare as they were, Chiyo decided to spend her time not patrolling the city for troublemakers but relaxing high up in the clouds, laying back on one as if it was a pillow, arms interlaced behind her head.

A shadow passed over her, and she opened a single eye to see whom had blocked the sunlight.

A pair of beautiful white wings was spread out above her, and Chiyo quirked an eyebrow up at the odd sight. Another winged girl. Huh.

"Nice wings," remarked Spirit casually.

"Likewise," said Hawkgirl. "Didn't know you had a pair too, Hikari-san."

The freckled girl shrugged. "Bit of an accident, long story. You?"

"Uh... found 'em," Chiyo replied evasively.

"So... wanna race?"

Never having had a challenge to her command of the skies before, Chiyo rose instantly to the idea of some harmless fun. "Sure," she said. "But how about we make it interesting? The loser owes the winner a favor?"

The other girl needed only a moment to think about it. "All right. You're on."

"Cool," Hawkgirl said, then looked about, quickly picking a target. "First one to Tokyo-3 Tower wins! Go!"

The younger girl was off like a shot, barreling through the air at speeds she had barely ever dared in the past. She had to squint against the wind, but her eyes still watered a little. It wasn't long before her lungs started to burn, but she didn't slow down, her desire to win the race propelling her onwards.

"Hey, you're not bad!"

Startled, Hawkgirl finally took her eyes off the Tokyo-3 Tower and turned to see Spirit. The other superwoman was easily keeping pace with her, and it looked like she wasn't having any trouble doing it, either. Her wings barely even seemed to be flapping, and as Hawkgirl watched her, gaping, Spirit casually circled the younger superwoman a few times, literally flying rings around her.

Hawkgirl knew she should've said something, but she was too stunned to speak a single word.

Then, Spirit grinned impishly at her and abruptly picked up speed, leaving Hawkgirl far behind her.

When Hawkgirl arrived at the tower, long after her opponent, she was panting heavily. Spirit didn't even appear winded.

"Wow, you really beat me bad," Hawkgirl gasped out.

"Don't feel bad, Chiyo. I've been doing this a lot longer than you have."

Still out of breath, Hawkgirl could only nod in agreement. Clearly, she still had a long way to go to catch up to Spirit.

"Okay, you won. So what do you want?"

"Well... there is one thing I'd like to ask for... from a fellow superwoman..."

Hikari paused briefly, then clasped her hands together and looked hopeful.

"... can I get your brother's cell number?"

Chiyo blinked at the odd request, a bead of sweat forming against the back of her head.

* * *

><p><strong>Authors Notes:<br>**This particular omake inspired by a chat with Mike313, who as always is a most helpful beta reader and idea bouncer.

This marks a temporary hiatus for the story, as the initial joy has faded and its become more of a chore than anything else. I may come back to it in the future, I may not.


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